Call Me When You're Sober
by Sabaku no Hime
Summary: Sakura had to leave Konoha. This is the end of her new life as she gets called back after three long years. Will she be able to readjust? And what of the life she left behind? Eventually, the past always comes to bite you...full summary inside
1. Her New Life

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Subaku no Hime: I'm filling in as I go here, peeps. I have nothing really done, so this is off the top of my head. Constructive criticism, if you have it, is welcomed with a big hug and cookies. Flames will be used to make Toaster Strudels (TM of Pillsbury) cuz my toaster is on the fritz. Let me know what you think: am I doing anything right/wrong? Give me some ideas here, cuz I want to make people happy ;)**

**Disclaimer: me no own. I own nothing but a broken toaster and a computer. My dog and cat own me…furry monsters that they are oh, and I own a Wii, but that's with my boytoy as well, so that doesn't even count. Sobs brokenly…**

Summary: Sakura had to leave Konoha in order to save Sasuke, not that he'd ever care. Three years later, she's made a life for herself and an assumed identity, when she's called back by Tsunade. She leaves her life and friends behind again, and a new lover as well; but she doesn't realize her lover had a secret of his own. Why was she called back to Konoha, and will she be able to forget her new life in favor of her old one? And why, in the name of the kamis, does she have to go to Sunakagure?

Pairing O/C Sakura x O/C Gaara. Warning: does not really follow manga after Chuunin exams, save for the fact that Sasuke leaves.

**Sakura's New Life**

Naru touched up her mascara and gave herself a quick once over before she dashed for the door with a shrug. 'Look pretty,' was all that her friend Kellie had told her before leaving to get ready for the bar. Naru always tried to look pretty, so she didn't really see what the problem was.

Kellie was her very best friend in her new life here in the city. Naru wasn't even sure what the name of this city was, to be honest. She'd never really cared. For the last three years, she'd been moving around, and only one person had any sort of idea where she was now.

But, she thought with a small cringe, that was all for the best, after all.

Briefly, she thought back to the last day of her old life, and the thing that that bastard had told her. He'd said she'd better disappear. She'd almost laughed in his face, except for the fact that he held up one hand to silence her.

Naru vividly remembered the damn Akatsuki robe he'd worn. The thing that completely enveloped him from neck to foot. Not that it'd hinder him at all, being as high class a ninja as he was, but it would be much easier if she could see where Itachi's muscles were tensing so she knew where an attack would come from. His dark red Sharingan eyes had met hers coolly, and he'd smirked in that way he had. The smirk that made him look like an older Sasuke.

She'd always been vulnerable to that smile.

Sakura hadn't bothered to read the kanji on his ring as he silenced her. It wasn't like she'd ever mistake him, after all. He was Sasuke's older brother, damn him, and the murderer of his whole clan.

Then he'd told her the one thing that could make her leave her beloved Konoha, and her friends. The only thing that could ever make her leave Sasuke, even though he wasn't nearby anymore. He'd left long ago to join the bastard Orochimaru.

Itachi had caught on to her weakness, not that she'd ever tried to hide it. He'd told her he'd kill Sasuke if she didn't leave. Then he said he'd take her and make her bear a dozen Sharingan users for him.

_Creepy,_ was all Sakura, now Naru could think._ But of course, being Itachi, that would be the only way he'd ever be able to get a girl,_ she mused to herself.

Naru shook her head, rejoining the present day. Smart move, since she was about to bash her overlarge forehead into the door to her apartment.

She raised a brow and straightened her white skirt; glad she had the legs to carry it off. Her white heeled sandals clicked on the floor as she grabbed her keys from the tiny purple purse she carried. That was her very favorite purse. It was a small clutch with a change purse clasp and sparkly patterns all over.

Naru ran a hand through her henna-ed red hair and moved her butt. Racing down the stairs from the third floor, she saw her friends waiting at the secured door.

'Naruuuu-chaaaaan,' Kellie yelled at her as she came into the plain lobby.

'What is it, Kellie,' Naru asked, sort of cranky. That was a part of her new persona, being cranky. She'd grown sick of always being cheerful, and always being everyone's punching bag. She'd decided that if she had a new life, she was going to be herself. Period. And nobody was going to change her. If they didn't like it, well, they were welcome to piss right off.

'Come on, Naru,' her friend said.

Naru didn't really like the chan part there, though. After all, that was a part of her old life. She'd moved to a different country to escape Itachi and Sasuke. She didn't need the constant reminders of phrases from home.

Kellie laughed diabolically, and Naru felt a chill go down her spine. 'Come on, Naru, we have _plans…_'

'Plans,' Naru grumbled, 'what kind of plans are you talking about, Kellie?'

_What do you think,_ inner Sakura/Naru asked,_ someone is going to get laid tonight._

Naru smirked to herself, wondering which one of them they had their 'plans' for tonight. Kellie was single, and enjoyed it. She made no bones about that. Manda liked dancing and slutting it up for the boys, but she was too lazy to take anyone home at night. Her reasoning was that she didn't want to have to deal with the morning after crap, which was more stressful than it was worth. On top of that, she said she didn't want to bother with a relationship, because it was too much work.

In that, Manda reminded Naru of Shikamaru. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

Nik was, well, he was Nik. He didn't take girls home. He was gay.

And he didn't pick up at the clubs they went to, because there weren't enough single gay guys there. Nik was notorious for being waaay too picky with his men, though Naru didn't blame him. She was even pickier.

Naru danced gleefully with anyone nearby, which was mostly Mandy, Nik or Kellie. The music thrummed in her veins, bass rocking through her skull, relaxing and enervating her at the same time. She was already half soaked with booze, which she didn't mind. Being drunk was fun, but only if she had friends around her she trusted.

Recently, trusted friends had been in short supply.

Her current group of trusted friends was from school, where she studied naturopathic healing and acupuncture, along with business and philosophy.

Naru was a busy, busy girl.

Now and again, the group would retire from the floor to get more drinks. Soaking themselves with alcohol. Sotted. Wasted. Why not? What would be the point in going to a club to get drunk and dance if they didn't get drunk?

Briefly, Naru wished it was ten years ago and she was twelve again. Before Sasuke left. Before all the problems. When they were still genin and she could still use her ninjutsu. She couldn't even practice anymore, since she wasn't in a hidden village. She had to suffice with exercise and pretend she'd never known how to be a ninja. She had to pretend that she hadn't become a chuunin, and then passed into jounin with only a few months in between.

Tsunade sama had wanted her to become a special jounin, or even join the ANBU squad before she'd had to leave.

Shaking herself back to reality, Naru watched as Kellie smirked in her pretending-to-be-evil manner. She liked to think that it struck fear into the hearts of her friends, but it just looked silly, her delicate brows scrunched down as her light voice tried for a heavy tone.

'Kay, Manda, Nik,' she laughed her evil, evil laugh.

Naru glanced at her friends; sure she wasn't being let in on something. She frowned, wondering what the joke was, as her friends stared at her with strange eyes. Glaring, lascivious eyes.

Naru felt a dark chill worm its way down her spine.

It proved to be an accurate assessment, as Nik put in his two cents. 'It's your turn to get laid now, Naru,' he offered, cheerful. His lightly made up eyes blinked at her, puppy dog style.

'Those eyes don't work, Nik, hon.' she replied flatly. 'Your eyes are way too blue for that.'

'Well, why are you complaining?' he asked her 'Your eyes are the same shade, and I gave you all those great makeup tips…'

Naru shrugged. 'You're right, you did. But the blue puppy dog eyes don't work on me. I'm immune.'

'But Naru,' Kellie giggled. 'That's no the point. The point is that you're always complaining about needing to get laid, but you never take any of the pretty boys home.'

Manda nodded. 'She's right, Naru. You dance with all the hotties, but you never even let them touch you. So why do you complain about it if you won't do anything about it?'

'Ah- heh,' Naru offered, mind whirling. Should she laugh and refuse like normal? This wasn't what they usually did when she whined about not getting laid. They usually whined with her, and then Kellie brought some new guy home.

Sometimes Naru wished she didn't mind being a slut like Kellie.

But she wasn't. She couldn't even pretend to be.

Naru debated as to whether or not she should just go along with the trio and humor them for a while.

She pressed her lips together, not really sure. Discomfort…

Manda blinked puppy dog eyes at her, and Naru felt herself smirking. Manda's puppy dog eyes worked, because they were big and brown. Somehow or other, Manda's eyes were always shiny like she was on the verge of tears if she didn't get what she wanted.

'Any likely candidates?' she asked offhandedly.

'A few,' Kellie chuckled at her, surprise marring her brow. 'But wouldn't you prefer to pick out your own grapes?'

'Hn,' Naru smirked. There was her out. Bonus! 'Yeah, I think I would,' she conceded.

'Have you been scoping out the hotties?' Naru shrugged. She hadn't, really. There wasn't much of a point to it, since she hadn't been intending on doing anything but dancing with them. And it didn't matter to her how her dance partner looked. 'Okay, you can take until one to find your own toy. If you can't before then, I call dibs on interference.'

'Interference?' Naru asked, not trusting Kellie in the least.

_So much for trusted friends,_ she huffed to herself. _I don't know if they're trying to get me laid, or get me hurt. I can't pick a toy in three hours. I don't know any of them, and I don't know if there's a mass murderer here or anything sick like that._

_Wait._ Naru smirked to herself _it doesn't really matter if anyone tried to hurt me or not. I'm a jounin. Even if I'm out of practice, I have to be stronger, faster and meaner than pretty much any civilian out there. That's why they give jobs to the hidden villages. The civs just can't do it themselves, because they don't have the physical or mental resources._

'Yeah,' Kellie brought her back to the bar with an almost physical thud. 'If you don't want to know what it is, then pick yourself someone.'

'But what if there's no one to my taste?' Naru asked. She wasn't sure. She hadn't really been looking. She'd been dancing and getting drunk with her friends.

'I know there are at least ten single guys here who fit your type, Naru,' Manda offered, pseudo-helpfully. 'Cold and a little cruel with dark eyes and funky dark hair'

'But that's-'

'Are you looking for happily ever after with a white picket fence and babies?' Kellie raised a sardonic brow at her.

At Naru's unabashedly horrified look, she nodded cheerfully. 'So, all they have to do is fit a physical type then. If you don't like his personality after you're done with him, just leave before he wakes up'

(Subaku no Hime would like to take a moment here to say that random sex is _dangerous._ Never, ever, _ever_ have sex with a random stranger. You never know, you might wake up with aids, or you might wake up being tortured to death by some sicko. This is only a plot device. Do not, do not do not under _any_ circumstances ever sleep with someone you don't know very, very well. _Period_.)

Naru smirked. She hadn't really anted to do it like this, but whatever. It didn't really matter anymore anyway. Why bother hesitating? It wasn't doing her any good. It wasn't like the he that she'd been waiting for was ever going to do anything about it.

Besides, if she got really uncomfortable, she could always just leave, couldn't she?

'Okay,' Naru conceded, 'but you have to feed me more drinks while I have a look around.'

Kellie smirked, and ran off to the bar, leaving Naru with Manda and Nik.

_Now,_ she thought to herself, _who looks just a little bit…_difficult?

All the guys that resembled _him_ looked… easy. Or they looked too cheerful and not nearly brooding enough. Or they looked sloppy. Naru glanced around at the quietly relaxing ones. _Who looks…_ she thought to herself, _wait, there's one now._

He stood, tall and impassive, gazing stoically at the people dancing on the floor. He didn't look easy. But he looked enough like the him that she'd been fruitlessly waiting and pining for, for so many years that she might be able to drink herself into the belief that it was actually the right guy.

Well, she thought about going to that one, until his friend brought back their drinks. The two beautiful men shared a searing gaze full of promises.

Naru decided then to move along. _Nik might have a better chance with that one_, she smirked.

She noted a boy with brown hair standing with his back to the bar as he lifted a drink to his lips. It looked amber, like some kind of hard liquor, straight up, but she couldn't r3eally tell from this far away.

The boy-man wasn't particularly large, nor tall. His hair was sort of, well, mussed up. It looked as if he'd just gotten out of bed, and hadn't bothered brushing his hair.

Naru felt a tug in her stomach as she thought about said young man getting out of bed all mussed up and tousled.

His rather voluminous clothes didn't managed to hide the fact that he was almost painfully thin, but his posture indicated strength. She wasn't sure if it was physical or mental strength, but the weak never stand that straight, their gaze never that penetratingly direct.

Naru's gaze meandered back to his face and widened in shock. There was some sort of marking on his forehead. An unmistakable bright red color that she'd only ever seen once before. Naru's breath caught in her throat.

_No,_ she sighed in relief. It wasn't kanji. It looked to be some sort of tribal design.

Naru breathed again until she looked at his eyes. He'd noticed her stare. She could feel her ears heating up as she realized that he was giving her the same intense scrutiny she was giving him.

She blushed and met his eyes boldly, refusing to be the one to look away. Refusing to be submissive. Just because she wanted to. Just because she'd seen his type before. She'd dealt with people of his type before.

Sasuke.

Kellie pressed a drink into her hand, following her gaze as the moment broke.

'He's not really your type,' Kellie mused. 'He's a little too freaky.'

'Yeah,' Naru agreed.

'But I heard the freaky looking ones will try almost anything,' Naru could hear the smirk in the other girl's voice. 'Is that a drawing on his face? What the hell is wrong with him? I hope it's not a tattoo. That would make it really hard to get a job…'

'That's a horrible stereotype,' Naru complained. The way he dressed and decorated his body didn't mean that he was some kind of freaky killer or sicko, did it?

Naru chuckled as she watched a girl walk up and try to talk to the man with the drawn on face. He simply turned away and met Naru's eyes again.

'Is that _interest_ I see, Naru?' Kellie laughed, pushing Naru. 'I think so. He ignored her, but on the other hand, she isn't as cute as you, but…'

'More drinks,' Naru mumbled. 'I need more drinks.'

'Liquid courage,' Manda piped, walking off.

'Will you go to see him if you drink more?' Kellie asked.

Naru blinked. 'I'll probably drape myself all over him. You know I'm a cuddly drunk.'

Kellie smirked and guided a half plastered Naru to the bar. 'Three killer kool aid,' she ordered the bartender, leaving more than enough cash for the drinks and a healthy tip. (Always tip your bartender!)

'Drink quickly,' Kellie laughed quietly. 'I'll drop you off near the pretty freak on the way to the ladies room. I'll check up on you when I get back.'

'What will I say, Kellie?' Naru asked, gulping the second drink quickly.

'How about hello?' a dark voice asked quietly from behind her. His voice was so soft, she almost missed his words, but she felt the heat of his stare on her neck, and a trickle of awareness snaked down her spine.

Subaku no Hime - please read and review. any feedback (other than flames) is most welcome. ideas???

Next Chapter- Naru's New Boytoy.

she met him at the bar, now what happens? And why is he so familiar... what will she do when she's called back to Konoha? and what's with this? Itachi appears soon?

warning- mild lemons, not descriptive in the next few chapters. lots of fluff coming up.


	2. Naru's New Boy Toy

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Subaku no Hime:** I wasn't going to update for a few days, but I have a little spare time now, and Gar and Naru have been slamming around in my head, refusing to let me rest.

I received a very kind review from **Sweet Bebot** –my very first review! (hugs and cries in gratitude) So I'm feeling very inspired now. This update is for you then. (hopes the story doesn't disappoint)

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Well, my computer and toaster. My toaster is fixed at last! By the way, if I didn't mention it before, Call Me When You're Sober is by Evanescence, obviously not me. (smirks evilly)

On with the mayhem…

**2. Naru's New Boy toy**

Naru whirled to look at the owner of the dark, smooth voice she'd heard. It was him. The _him_ she'd been staring at across the bar. The one who had that marking on his face, that him.

'Was I talking about you?' Naru offered defiantly, eyes sparkling dangerously. She was never really moody when she drank, so she wasn't quite sure why she was acting like that, getting defensive. But what did it really matter, anyway?

She downed her third drink; she'd lost count of how many she'd had this evening, and nodded at the bartender for another.

'I suppose that I could count as a freak,' he cocked his head at her curiously. 'I have a tattoo on my face, and I'm wearing makeup.'

His penetrating stare was from oddly flat jade/aqua eyes. For some reason, she absolutely could not read anything beneath his eyes.

This bothered her on a very basic level that she almost didn't bother acknowledging. There were only two people in her entire life that had that kind of stare, and one of them was named Sasuke. 'And you were staring at me,' he added with a smirk.

'You were staring too,' Naru pointed out, slurring just the tiniest bit.

He nodded in agreement, a triumphant smirk caressing his soft looking lips, and Naru felt a slight tug of purely sexual awareness.

She shook off the odd sensation, sipping her next drink and trying to wrap her drunken mind around what was going on. Had she lost some sort of battle that she wasn't even aware of being part of? Her eyes widened as things suddenly started to blur, and she blinked owlishly at the young man who was becoming even more monstrously gorgeous with each drink.

Briefly, she wondered what he might look like when she was sober. Would she be able to stand looking at him? Was this what was called 'beer goggles'? She blinked again, cheerfully not caring. Kellie wouldn't let her go home with someone who would scare her in the morning.

'I'm S-Naru,' she offered, cutting herself off. It had been so long since her real name had slipped from her lips, she wasn't even sure what the syllables tasted like anymore. It wasn't even a word she could say in conversation. She'd moved to another country, and they spoke a different language. Japanese words would be looked at askance, with no comprehension. That disappointed her.

'Snaru?' he reiterated. 'That's a unique one,' he told her, a small, again oddly unreal smile tugged at the corners of his generous mouth.

'Be nice,' Nik admonished. 'Naru is getting drunk.'

'Well then, Naru, I'm Gaar-' he inclined his head inquisitively. 'You two are?' he looked at them with that penetrating gaze that gave absolutely nothing away.

'Kellie, and he's Niklaus,' she told him. 'Our girl Manda is on the floor slutting it up for the guys.' Kellie smirked.

Gar nodded slightly. 'Well,' he lifted one shoulder. 'Naru will be safe with me, Nik and Kellie.' He blinked, contacts visibly shifting and Naru felt herself cringe in sympathy. Moving contacts were never fun. It felt her eyes were being scratched right on the inside. 'No harm will come to her under my care.' His face was oddly solemn, and Naru almost laughed.

Harm? No harm would come to her? But he was her sex object for the night, and losing her virginity was supposed to be something a bit painful…wasn't it?

'Really,' Naru snorted. 'That's good. Can I go home with you tonight?' she asked with a challenging smirk on her flushed face.

He glanced over at her, ears turning a little pink at her suggestion. 'Maybe you should sober up a little bit before saying things like that, Naru,' he offered.

He looked genuinely offended that she'd ask to go home with a complete stranger.

But then again, she wasn't sure _she_ wasn't slightly offended, herself. After all, she didn't do stuff like this all the time. Besides, was she that unattractive that he had to look upset that she'd asked him to take her home?

Gar glanced over at Kellie and Niklaus for support, as if asking these two to make their small, drunk friend make some sort of sense.

He found absolutely no help. Only two matching, mischievous smiles as Nik told him 'She's been whining about needing to get laid for a good long time. We just gave her a little bit of encouragement,' he said

'Naru is the one who decided to get wasted while she was at it,' Kellie chuckled.

Nik just reached over and ruffled Naru's slightly disheveled hair, making her giggle a bit. It was kind of funny listening to her friends talk about her as if she wasn't there. She kind of felt a little like a bargaining chip. Nik and Kellie were trying to get rid of her as a bargaining chip.

She dismissed the whimsical thought and ran her hands through her henna-red hair.

'Hn,' Kellie muttered. 'Well, take a look at that.'

'What is it, Kel?' Nik asked. Naru could feel herself starting to sink deeper into the impenetrable jade of Gar's eyes. There was something there. He was almost familiar…but not at the same time.

There was just something about him. Something indefinable, almost ethereal in his eyes; as if he harbored some kind of massive internal pain that just wouldn't go away.

'I see something very pretty over there that I'd like to make out with for a while,' Kellie waved cheerfully as she left, calling over her shoulder to Gar 'Be nice to her, Gar. She has her phone if you do anything to scare her.

'I don't think you would, but just in case. We always protect our own, though it's usually Naru doing the protecting,' she giggled and walked off in the direction of a smiling blond, surrounded by women.

For some reason, the flood tide of women seemed to part as Kellie made her way over.

Naru couldn't help but feel a little envious of her friend's sheer chutzpah, and the way things just _worked_ sometimes for her.

'Are you going to stay until close?' Niklaus asked, bringing Naru's blue, contact lens covered eyes back to the two men she sat with. She couldn't help but eye Gar's loose clothing, wondering what was under it. His black bondage pants were either an attempt at humor or an actual fetish, though she doubted the latter, and his tee was nicely fitted, though covered with some kind of jacket like robe thing. It was an interesting ensemble, and it had an almost formal flair, though she didn't know where he'd be able to formally wear bondage pants.

'From what I've seen her drink since first looking at her,' Gar snorted 'I doubt it.'

'Have you been drinking?'

'Yes. Of course I have.'

'Who are you here with?' Nik asked, beautiful blue eyes devouring Gar. Naru was actually quite pleased with that. Nik was almost as picky as she was, and even if she was utterly wasted, she knew that Nik wasn't the type to visually devour someone unless they were actually attractive. Naru felt a little more secure in her choice of boy toy for the night.

'I was here with a bunch of guys from school, just doing the wingman thing,' he replied.

'So what happened to everyone?'

'Well, Kellie is making out with one of them, the rest of them decided that it would be better to go to a sports bar and watch something while they got drunk.' He shrugged.

'Why did you stick around then?'

Gar met Naru's eyes with a lazy smile. Another one of his smiles that didn't quite reach his eyes. Something that was almost hidden lay in their depths. 'Why do you think?' he broke eye contact and met Nik's gaze again. 'I'll keep her safe.'

'You'd better. She's one of four women who have the guts to go to the gay bar with me.' Nik met Naru's gaze, and she noticed that he had some kind of aura around him.

Must be the alcohol, she mused to herself.

'So how are you getting home?' Nik asked bluntly.

'I'm walking.' He smirked. 'And if she can't walk that far, I'll carry her.' He shrugged nonchalantly. 'She's not that big. And I don't care if she falls asleep on me while I carry her. I have a couch I can crash on.'

Nik nodded thoughtfully. 'You'll do.'

'I won't let her get hurt.' Gar raised a brow. 'I'm not in the habit of allowing a woman I want to wake up with to get hurt.'

'I have to make sure.' Nik defended himself, frowning as Naru drank yet _another._ 'How much have you had to drink, Naru?' he asked, finishing off his own drink. He always kept track of his intake, and never left drinks alone. There were just too many perverts out there that would slip something in another's drink.

Nik shivered internally as he remembered one night with four of his friends. They'd left their drinks alone for a minute to go dance.

Bad, bad idea.

His best friend had ended up in the hospital, having been slipped a date rape drug while he was away. He'd almost died due to an allergic reaction.

'I'm a little protective,' Nik conceded to Gar.

'I know. But it's okay. I'm like that with my friends too.'

Silence reigned for a moment, and Naru looked out at the dance floor. She wanted to do some dancing. This conversation was getting boring. It was just two guys posturing and preening, trying to establish dominance and Gar's primal right to take Naru home to mate with.

'Are you sure you want to deal with that, Gar?' Nik asked. 'Naru's had a lot to drink tonight.'

'Why not?' he shrugged. 'At least I know she'll be safe with me, and won't be with some sicko.'

'She could pass out at any time now,' Nik warned.

'Hey there?' Naru complained. 'Remember me? I'm right here. I'm the one who wants to sleep with him tonight, eh?'

Nik and Gar shared a glance.

'What's with the third degree, anywho? I will be sleeping with him, not you.'

'Because you're drunk, and I'm your friend. I'm making sure you're going to be safe.' He replied, face reflecting his curiosity. 'Why wouldn't you want me to make sure you're ok?'

'No, that's fine,' she replied.

'Hey,' Gar prodded her. 'Go dance or use the ladies room, Nik and I are going to talk sports for a few minutes, okay?'

Naru shot him a sarcastic glance telling him she didn't believe him for a moment. But whatever.

'Sure,' Naru replied, sort of miffed. He was talking to her friends more than her, and it was becoming annoying. Since when did her friends have the last say on who she slept with? Wasn't she the one whose opinion counted?

She took off to the ladies room with a pronounced huff.

When she finished touching up her makeup, which was sort of a sloppy job due to her drunken state, she made her way back to the dance floor. Naru found herself glad that she didn't wear lipstick; after all, if she'd had to reapply, she'd have ended up with over lined lips up to her nose.

She scoffed at herself and began dancing to the music. Maybe she could find a sex toy that would talk to _her_, instead of ignoring her in favor of getting her friends good opinion.

She danced around, moving her hips in a sexy sway to the bass as she made her way to one of the Sasuke clones. He was one of the easy looking ones, so she moved closer. He finally looked up at her as she made her way over to him, and he smiled.

It was very disappointing.

He wasn't cold like he should be. But then again, he was one of the easy looking ones, so she couldn't expect and iceberg.

She danced with the pretty boy for a few minutes until his cheerful grin turned wan and he turned away.

Puzzled, Naru frowned until she felt a pair of hands on her waist. Warm, warm hands curled around her, and she felt herself losing to the comfort of touch.

She hadn't realized how much she'd missed being touched by anyone. Not even her friends hugged her. She didn't encourage it, and hadn't known how much she'd missed the basic emotional satisfaction of human contact.

'Come on, Naru baby,' he said into her ear, 'it's quiet at my place, and we can talk there,'

'Just talk?' she asked, disappointed. Naru leaned back in a calculated gesture, resting her head back on his chest, and she registered that he was taller than he looked. This probably meant that he was proportionally heavier than he looked as well.

'We'll see when you sober up a bit,' he chuckled, the brush of warm air on her sensitive ear making her shiver.

Naru turned into his grip, grinding against him for a minute just to torture him. If he wasn't going to give her what she wanted, she'd make him realize exactly what he wasn't getting.

Stubborn man.

'Why are you so keen on me sobering up, anyway?' she asked, lips brushing his ear as the heavy bass thrummed in her blood, the alcohol, way, way too much of it fizzing with the heavy beat, mixing into a volatile pulse.

She could feel the sexual tension that he wasn't going to relieve for her, and it was building. Although she wasn't sure how much of that had to do with the fact that she was pleasantly plastered. She wasn't one to feel like this on a regular basis.

So why not enjoy it for the night?

'Because, I don't want you to regret things in the morning.' He stared at her intently, gaze at odds with his body's grind. She enjoyed the fun things that his grind was doing to her as she tried to ignore his words. 'I'm not really…in the habit of taking advantage of drunk girls,' he finished softly in her ear.

Naru blinked into his flat green eyes, watching as his pupil seemed to slip to the side slowly until he blinked. She frowned.

_Wow, am I ever drunk,_ she thought to herself._ I can't believe I think I saw that,_ she smiled at him, raising her brows in a drunken parody of silent contemplation.

'Don't forget, Gar,' she reminded him, 'This whole thing was premeditated.' She put her hand on his chest, feeling the steady, strong thrum of his heart against her fingertips. 'Don't worry about it, and just come on.' She gripped his shirt and he followed her to the door of the club, strangely tame and subdued.

She didn't bother worrying about his sudden change in attitude.

She ran into Nik on her way out, and told him that she was leaving.

'Don't worry, Naru,' he told her. 'He gave me his home address and cell number if we get worried. Call us tomorrow if you're staying with him for a few days,'

Naru paused, wondering at the significance of that. He'd given her friends access to him. And Nik thought she might stay with him for a few days.

Was the tension that palpable that others could see it as that obvious?

He led her out, green eyes strangely flat again. She shook her head. Was it the fact that she was drunk making his eyes seem odd, or was it something else?

The flat eyes and smile that didn't reach them bothered her on numerous levels.

What was the boy hiding? Well, other than any and all emotion he might be feeling.

'Come this way,' he led her slowly, one arm around her shoulders to prevent her from stumbling too much as they walked.

'Do you live far?' she asked quietly, grasping his right hand and looking at it in the dim streetlights as they wandered down the sidewalk.

'Far enough,' he told her. 'If you get tired, I'll just carry you,' he told her.

'No need. I have a little more control than my friends seem to think I have.' She told him with a small smirk.

'Hn,' she mused. 'Interesting.'

'What's that?' he queried, leading her gently down a well lit street.

'Your hand,' she said. He raised a brow, or where one would be if he had them, and Naru noticed an oily, cakey substance on his facial marking. It was the same pale ivory as his face, but couldn't match the smoothness of his forehead. And on top of that, there were no barely visible pores on it.

She knew that she had to be really close to even notice it, but wondered why he was wearing makeup.

'Naru? What is it?' he asked again, almost as if he was trying to inject something into his words. Was he trying to emote at her? She smirked briefly, already knowing that it wasn't likely. Gar seemed to be almost as cold as Sasuke in the emotional expressions department.

'Do you follow palmistry?' she asked, realizing that she'd been staring at him.

'No,' he blinked at her. 'Should I?'

'Depends,' she replied. 'I read a book on it a few months ago,'

'Oh,'

'From what I can recall-and do keep in mind that I'm fairly drunk, it says something about major trauma in your early life, but also great leadership and loyalty.' She mused aloud. 'The breaks in your lifeline are distressing, but your heart line says you're going to be busy.' She smirked at him. 'Were you sick a lot as a child?'

'No. but there was other trauma,' he admitted to her.

'Hn.' He pointed to a large, deeply etched line near the top of his hand. 'This one? What does it mean?'

'That's your heart line,' she replied, glad her face was donw to hide her blush.

'Does that say anything?' he asked, voice flat again.

'It's very unstable. Firm and deep, but it appears you had a lot of trauma early in life.' She chuckled. 'It evens out in the end, and looks like you're going to have a fairly eventful emotional life,'

'Oh,'

'I don't remember much more than that, though,' she told him.

'Okay.' He replied, leading her donw a less well lit sidestreet.

'So what do you do?' she asked, curling into his side and making him stumble as he caught her weight.

'Doesn't matter,' he replied.

'Good point.' She agreed. She knew that she shouldn't care at all. Definitely not enough to ask about his life.

'What about you?'

Naru smirked at him, and shook her head. 'It doesn't matter,' she answered snidely.

He just let it go as they walked up to a tall, plain cinderblock building on a small plot of grass. 'We're here,' he told her,

Naru looked up at the building, and noted the heavily curtained windows. She wasn't quite sure where they were, but she didn't bother asking. She could always find her way home.

Or to her current domicile.

He guided her through the doors and into a small, rickety elevator. 'Come on, Naru girl,' he held her elbow as the lift stopped.

'Do you have drinks at home?' She asked, stumbling against him a little bit. It was more of a calculated move than drunken accident though. She liked what his body did to hers.

'No,' he told her.

'Why not? I'm going to sober up soon,'

He looked at her. Just looked at her. 'Is that so?' he asked blandly.

Naru had the decency to blush. 'I didn't mean it like that. I'm just not this…affectionate when I'm sober.' She informed him. 'Besides, having sex with a stranger will be easier the drunker I am.'

Gar unlocked a heavy wooden door and ushered her into a dark room. She could see darker shadows among the dimness until he turned on a light. There was a large couch with a lap blanket on it, a small coffee table that had a mug on it, placed neatly on a coaster. On the other side of the room, Naru saw a tv. So he wasn't completely techless.

'Sit,' he told her, motioning at the worn couch. Naru obeyed as he disappeared behind a wall briefly. Gar returned moments later with a few bottles of water.

'Drink' he ordered as he sat on the other corner of the couch, cracking his bottle.

'Okay,' Naru raised a brow at him. 'So why aren't you over here then?'

'You don't really want to sleep with someone you don't know,' he told her coldly. 'Why are you even trying?

'It's a pretty sure way to get yourself raped if you're not careful. You know, you go with a random guy and chicken out because you start sobering up and decide your best bet is at home in your own bed, alone. But you're already at his place, and he's drunk. You're still drunk enough that your physical reactions are slow. He decides that your no actually means yes and forces you.'

Naru shivered. She could take care of herself, she knew that. No matter how messed up she got, she could take care of herself. But most civilians weren't so lucky. And a lot of women have ended up in that situation, she knew that too.

'True, but I have no intention of chickening out.' She replied softly.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­**Subaku no Hime** sorry, the lemon didn't work out here. I also had to drop it here, or else there'd be a forty page chapter. This seemed to me like filler, but it was also pretty important in the character building. I just wish I had more action in this one. Next chapter will be a lot better. Essential personality building is over, and they get down to business.

But what else happens. You know being with someone is never as easy as it should be. There's all sorts of fallout to deal with, and Naru/Sakura doesn't seem the type here to want to deal with it. Gar/Gaara is also a lot different than when she originally met him, but how has he changed? He's just as cold as ever, but a little more talkative…

Please let me know what you think. What would you like to see happen? I don't know whether or not these two will do what I want them to though…

Cya next chappie!

Subaku no Hime


	3. Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Subaku no Hime:** There is a LEMON in this chapter, so those under eighteen, or bothered by such things, please feel free to skip it.

I'm sorry for the late update. I had a few ways which to take the story, and still can't decide. I'll get there though.

Due to the fact that I have two reviews for this story, and over four hundred hits, I'm adding copy and paste reviews at the end of the chapter. Please, please I need some feedback!!!

**Disclaimer:** pretty standard. Do I really need to say it again? Me no own (sobs)

_Recap from last chapter…_

'_Fine, but I have no intention on chickening out,' Naru told him._

**Chapter 3 **

**Don't wake me; I plan on sleeping in. (the postal service)**

Naru smirked at him coolly. It didn't matter really; she hadn't wanted to back out since looking across the bar at him. He was so damnably pretty, and she just didn't want to help herself. So why bother. It wasn't like she was saving herself for any specific reason anymore, and even if she was, why should that stop her. Even if she was saving herself, he'd never want her back.

She blinked her heavily mascaraed lashes at him, and expanded her smirk into a smile. Naru knew very well that it didn't reach her eyes, but she didn't really care. She was here now, at Gar's place. That meant that she was near where she wanted to be; his bedroom.

Gar just gave her a sarcastic and doubting look. 'On top of all that, your little comment about it being easier the drunker you are, reinforced my opinion that this isn't something you really want to do.'

'Give me a break, Gar,' she said, exasperated. So damn close. 'I'm drunk and horny. You agreed to take me home, and you practically ignored me at the bar to talk to my friends. Come on,' she ran a hand through her red hair and groaned.

So frustrating. It figured the one time she wanted to take someone home, she'd end up getting some sort of 'moral' man. Someone who wouldn't take advantage. Dammit all.

'I thought that your friends should know that you'll be fine. Kellie looked worried.' He replied, shrugging at her from across the well worn couch.

'So I'll be fine. I'm not here with some random scary guy. I'm here with you-'

'To you I am just some random guy,' he sneered at her.

Why was he trying to antagonize her? What would he gain from it? He certainly wouldn't end up getting laid with an attitude like that.

'Okay, I am here with some random guy. Fine,' she replied. 'I'm trying to get laid, and you're hot. So what's the problem? Why am I not undressed yet?'

He raised a brow at her, 'You don't want to do this. That's why we're not doing anything yet.'

Naru sighed softly, 'And how can I make you see that you're wrong?'

Gar chuckled at her softly. 'I'll give you a break,' he offered facetiously. 'If you can give me one good reason to have you, then we can have sex.'

Naru thought for a moment.

She glanced at him slyly, knowing that pricking at a man's pride and jealousy was almost a sure way to get anything she wanted.

'If it isn't you, then it's someone else.' She sneered at him.

'And how do you plan on getting back to the bar from here?' he asked, shrugging.

Naru cocked her head. Damn him. She wasn't entirely sure where they were because of her drunken state. She hadn't really been paying attention, she'd been too busy concentrating on his pretty face and yummy body.

'Try again,' he offered.

'You want me,' she replied softly. This at least she was certain of. After all, he wouldn't have brought her home if he didn't want her at all, would he?

'Yes,' he agreed. 'Willing and sober.'

'But-'

'Naru,' he said calmly, 'why don't you just sleep it off and we'll get to know each other over breakfast in the morning?'

'How about we have sex, and I'll think about staying for breakfast?'

He grunted, or scoffed. Naru wasn't entirely sure which.

'Okay then,' she licked her lips. 'How about I want you? Does that work for you?' she growled, pouncing on him.

CITRUS WARNING

She heard him moan softly as her teeth nipped at his neck less than gently.

'Naru-' he raised his hands to her shoulders to push her away, but ended up running his hands down her arms and circling her waist, helplessly pulling her closer. He made a noise of frustration, and Naru felt a flash of triumph pass over her as he held her. She found herself enjoying his desperation.

'I wanted you since I saw you, all cold and aloof,' she wriggled a little closer, lying on top of him and getting comfortable. Inwardly she smirked, feeding the flames of his hormones.

At least it didn't seem like he was going to stop, she made a soft purring noise as she realized that. She writhed just a smidge as his one hand passed up her ribcage, close to her breast.

She just ached for him to touch her there, more so because he wasn't yet. She wanted him.

Naru blinked a little as she realized that she hadn't been faking desire. It was real. As in _utterly real._

She smiled to herself at that, how unexpected. 'You're so pretty,' she rasped in his ear as her hands ran through his soft brown hair, loving the silky soft feeling. His hands clutched her closer as if he wasn't entirely sure what to do.

Naru found that oddly arousing.

She ran one hand through the cool silk of his hair, smudging the makeup on his face as she ran her other hand down his arm, placing it beside him to support herself.

Gar's makeup smudge was barely noticeable in her drunken state, but she did notice some kind of discoloration underneath it. Did the tattoo continue? What was it really?

She blanked as Gar moaned, sucking on her neck rather angrily, as if he was trying to resist, but having not much in the way of success.

_I'll take that as a yes then,_ she thought to herself as his free arm came around to play softly at the base of her spine. Naru shifted a bit, cheerful with her victory, straddling him intimately, and he gasped softly against the tender flesh of her neck as she undulated atop him.

She smirked against his skin as his fingertips dug in abruptly, pulling her closer to his overly-covered body.

'Not here-'he groaned as he pulled her closer. He seemed lost in his body, unable to help himself.

Naru felt herself growing wet at the thought of having this man at her mercy. This cold, calculating man was lost in desire for her, and he was having trouble surfacing.

'Why not?' she mumbled, hands going to the hem of his shirt and traveling slowly up the smoothly muscled expanse of his abdomen.

Hairless. _Thank all the gods that there be, _she smirked to herself. Just a personal preference, but she didn't like guys who looked like they were wearing a fur coat under their shirts. _Eeew._

His hips flexed helplessly under her, bringing them into close contact and she found herself mirroring his moan.

But that couldn't be her, could it? That feral groan came from her?

'Naru- please- I want-'he stuttered softly at her.

'Yes, it's okay Gar.' She started to pull off his shirt, enjoying the sight of his pale skin, marred only by a few freckles and a mole just above the waistband of his boxers.

She couldn't resist that mole. It was just so _there_. She bent over, flicking the mole softly with her tongue, tasting his skin, the clean, slightly salty flavor of him. Naru inhaled deeply of his soft, cleanly male scent.

She groaned slightly as his scent hit her. Her nails dug into his belly a little as she allowed the aphrodisiac effect of clean man and pheromones smack her upside the head.

'Naru- _please_-'he was cut off as her tongue teased the band of skin just above his boxers, gasping slightly. 'Not here, Naru'

'Yes here,' she smiled, lips tickling his softly rippling abs, and his belly jerked a tiny amount...

'No.' he replied, ferocious. His voice had that feral, commanding quality that would have sent her quivering into the corner when she'd been younger. More softly he added 'The fist time shouldn't be on a ratty old couch,'

She chose to ignore that as first-time-with-new-partner jitters, and settled in a little more. Naru yelped loudly when he picked her up bridal style with unnerving speed, and walked over to an open door near the back of the room.

It was scary. He picked her up as if she weighed nothing, and wasn't even out of breath. _Faster and_ stronger_ than he looks,_ she thought as he lay her down on what she assumed was his bed. The room was a little too dark for her to see.

Then she stopped thinking as she felt cool air against her belly, quickly replaced by the warmth of his hands and mouth as he removed her shirt, discovering her body piercing with a gentle, reverent hand. Naru sighed to herself gleefully, moving towards his neck again until he met her lips with his own.

Her eyes, hidden under blue contacts, flew wide at the soft warmth of his lips touching her own.

He was kissing her? Gar, a complete stranger, was kissing her. Her first kiss. A stranger.

Naru pulled back against the pillow quickly. She'd agreed to sleep with him, wasn't that enough? He wanted to kiss her too?

'Gar,' she offered in a warning tone, pulling her mouth away from him 'Don't-'

'Don't? What don't?' he pulled back a little, grasping her jaw to make her look him in the eye. 'Don't what?' he repeated.

'Don't kiss me,' she averted her eyes towards the wall in embarrassment. It seemed like such a silly thing to make a fuss about, but it felt way too… overwhelming.

'How am I going to have you if I can't kiss you?' he asked, the shine of his eyes disappearing for a moment as he blinked in the dark, and she realized that her eyes were adjusting.

'It's too…?' she ended on a question as he captured her mouth again.

Naru made to pull away, but he tipped her chin up to give himself access to her, refusing to allow her to refuse him this.

She relaxed against his soft, warm lips, and started moving her mouth against his hesitantly. His lips were softer, far softer than she'd have thought, she realized as he sucked her lips gently.

Naru smiled a little until his lips opened and his tongue poked against her own mouth. She tried to pull back again, and realized there was nowhere to go as he moved to lay closer to her, wrapping his free arm around her naked waist.

Their bodies pressed together, creating so much heat that Naru didn't want to bear it. Her mouth opened on a gasp as her shirt opened slowly, Gar having abandoned pulling it up in favor of keeping his mouth on hers. His tongue and hand invaded her simultaneously, and she gasped a little deeper. What the hell?

She realized then that it wasn't so bad, and relaxed, enjoying his touch as she watched his face start to darken in the shadows. She gazed at him through half lidded eyes, weighted by desire.

Her clothes seemed to disappear, leaving her in her lacy black bra and shorts. Gar left her briefly, turning away to light a few candles.

The sparse room was illuminated gently as he pulled off his shirt and admired her slender body for a moment.

She couldn't hide her squirm as heat coursed through her having this man, this stranger, looking at her as if he would own her body.

This man whose makeup was smudging badly, revealing some more of the facial marking and dark under eye circles.

'Naru,' he said softly, reaching out to touch her as she ran her hands down his lean, defined arms and he sat on the edge of the bed.

She smiled as he ran his hands over her legs, stopping to knead her calves gently. Gar traced his hands up her legs and around her slip hips, trying not to invade her body until she was ready. Naru felt slightly softer towards him because of that. His hands trembled a tiny bit as he ran them up her belly, hesitating a moment before allowing his hands to run over her soft breasts up to her shoulders.

Gar smiled as he moved to undo her bra 'Is this okay?' he asked quietly.

'Yes,' she sighed, still a little drunk, hormones buzzing happily as he touched her slowly, removing her bra inexpertly fumbling with the clasp. He pulled the straps down her arms, looking at her revealed flesh heatedly.

Gar made a choked sound, touching her breasts gently, weighing them in his hands, running his thumbs slowly over the pert coral nipples, brushing softly against the underside, making Naru squirm. 'Yes?'

'Yes,' she replied hoarsely, hooking her fingers in his waistband, pulling as a hint. She noted him blushing as he got up to pull off his pants and boxers.

Naru smiled in satisfaction, running her hands over his tight, firm body, enjoying the tensile strength of his muscular buttocks. His body was perfect. He wasn't gigantic, but lean and firm, the body of an acrobat, or a shinobi.

Naru lost herself for a moment as she looked at the part of him that would invade her, and raised a brow. It was…impressive.

She'd watched her share of porn, after all, being single and a virgin didn't stop her from getting off, and he wasn't as scary huge as the porn men. He didn't have any piercings or tattoos there, either, but his hair was neatly groomed, and he had a foreskin, she noted.

Then she realized that that was going to be _in_ her in the not too distant future.

She flinched slightly as he tugged down her shorts and yanked them off her ankles.

'Are you okay?' he asked, tipping her chin towards him so she had to look in his eyes. The dimly illuminated room added a flush to his skin that made him look delicious, and she almost couldn't help herself…

Naru nodded, and he put one hand on her breast again, the other dipping between her legs, exploring the wetness he found there softly.

Naru closed her eyes and leaned her head back as he spread her legs, rubbing his finger gently over her folds, finding one of the spots. She flinched slightly as he touched it _just right_, and couldn't help a soft moan and shiver.

'You like?' she didn't respond to his guttural question. 'Naru?' he queried, allowing his finger to probe deeper.

She could only groan and her eyes opened to see his face lowering towards her. He spread her legs wider to allow himself access, and glanced up at her face. Naru closed her eyes again and made a pleading sound, though she didn't know quite whether she was pleading with him to stop or keep going.

Then all she could do was moan as his tongue replaced his fingers, gently swiping over the most personal, private part of herself, the part of herself that she'd never shared before. He said her name often, almost as if he was asking for permission? Reassurance? She didn't know, and couldn't stop moaning as he brought her to the brink of explosive, mind-numbing orgasm again and again, to let her slide back away.

She touched his body everywhere she could, but he didn't allow much of that. He was busy playing with her, and asking for reassurance.

By the time he shifted to mount her, she was nearly crying with need, body freely lubricating, and she didn't even have time to tense for the expected pain as he pushed himself into her.

He groaned loudly and stopped, his body tremoring heavily.

'Why didn't you say anything?' he asked accusingly.

'What's it matter?' she replied, flexing her hips experimentally, eliciting a choked moan from him.

'I would have taken more time,' he blinked at her, 'Been a little gentler, maybe?' his voice was laced with dark sarcasm and slight anger.

'Doesn't matter,' she replied, voice low and smooth. 'Done is done. Can we have more fun now?'

She felt him shrug off his inexplicable anger. 'Sure… what do you like?'

Naru giggled a little. 'I don't know, be creative?'

Gar chuckled and nodded, crushing her mouth under his as he started moving within her, dragging desperate moans from them both

Soft moans and gentle words of encouragement faded into the dim room late into the night.

Much later, after a quick nap, Gar brought fruit and cheese to nibble on. Energy restored, they attacked each other again.

Naru wasn't sure who started it, but by that time, she realized it didn't matter.

**Subaku no Hime:** okay peeps; here are the copy and paste reviews so that you don't even have to think of one if you're busy. If you have time, please, please, please I really need some feedback on this story. I know everyone's ooc, it's supposed to be that way, but I need some comments on the plotline.

Any help is appreciated and received with hugs and cookies.

I like your story, please keep writing it.

I dislike your story for reasons I'm too busy or lazy to state now.

Okies? Thanks peeps. Next chapter won't have sooo much lemon in it, so I'll mark it.


	4. The Morning After

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Subaku no Hime:** Hey all. Two updates in one day. Yep. Just for you, cuz I've been a bad, bad girl in not updating in around two weeks was it?

Again, copy and paste reviews will be at the end of the chapter if you wish. If not, whatever. I won't ask anymore. I've had over a hundred hits on this story in the few hours since I posted the last chapter, and no reviews, so I'll take that as an I'm doin' ok.

Disclaimer: I don't own it. If I did, I probably wouldn't be going back to school yet again… college… can hardly wait. Not only college, but a private school yet. Muchos cashola. Dammit, my wallet hurts me.

LEMON is marked with an asterisk that thing, at the start and end.

Thanks for putting up with the vagaries of writing, and I still don't know where I want the plot to go after she goes back to Konohagakure. I have two possibilities, so if you want to offer ideas, pm me or email. K? Thanks!

**Chapter 4**

**The Morning After…**

Naru woke with a headache, but her body felt delicious. She luxuriated in the heat of the smooth cotton sheets and delightfully sore muscles, wondering what to make for breakfast when she got up.

Then she looked around, and her stomach dropped as she noted the unfamiliar room, guttered candles placed on a small dresser and bedside table

'Shit,' she cursed quietly, noting the time. Ten am. She'd planned to be gone before he woke, but the small bed was empty beside her.

Where? Where was he?

She snatched up a sticky note she found on the bedside table beside the twin sized bed.

He slept in a twin bed.

That disquieted her on a level she didn't even want to think about.

_Naru,_

_Grabbing coffee and bagels. Help yourself to anything in the place, there are clean towels in the cabinet beside the washroom, and I'll pick you up a toothbrush on the way._

Naru felt the shiver snake down her spine. He wanted to have _breakfast _with her? And on top of that, he was grabbing her a _toothbrush?_ Her stomach felt like there was a rock quarry in it as she grabbed her scattered clothing.

She'd somehow thrown her shorts over the doorknob last night, and she found one sock tucked between the bed and wall.

But no porn mags. Isn't that where all guys keep the porn mags?

No porn. He was getting breakfast and a toothbrush for her.

Disgustingly relationshippy.

Wide eyed, Naru threw on her clothing and dashed for the door as if the hounds of hell were on her heels.

Or maybe the hounds of relationship, which could be worse, depending on your point of view.

Naru bolted out the door and down the street, noting the run down coldness of the neighborhood. It didn't give her a danger kind of vibe, though, so she kept going without worrying too much.

She intended to call Kellie as soon as she was far enough away from him and his breakfast and toothbrush and…

Naru felt a nervous tear course down her cheek, realizing what exactly she'd done to him. He wanted more. He was hoping for more out of a one night stand than the sex.

She crossed her fingers and hoped she was just reading too much into common courtesy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gar POV (a real rarity)

Gar walked back home with food, the scent of coffee and warm cream cheese teasing his nostrils. He was certain that the beautiful woman in his bed would require feeding soon. He smirked as he adjusted the drugstore bag that held a toothbrush for her, hoping that she wouldn't be too hung over to enjoy bagels.

For some reason he didn't really feel like plumbing below the sleepy satiation of his body and utter quiet of mind, he wanted to see her smile at him when she was sober. He wanted to see her smile for him, and keep her smiling for him.

Maybe she'd let him love her body again, he thought with anticipation, feeling himself react cheerfully to that idea.

Warmth coursed through his veins and he blinked, shifting the damn contact lenses. He'd been her first, he thought to himself, slightly possessively. He was the first to touch her body, to have her, make her cry out his name. He smirked.

Gar looked around and after ascertaining that there was no one around, he leapt to the open kitchen window of his apartment. He was too anxious to bother with doors and stairs, and why bother with them, if no one would notice?

Setting the food down on the low table before the couch, he caught a faint whiff of her perfume. Clean and sweet, lightly green undertones.

Allowing an unfamiliar daft grin to turn his lips up, he entered his room, enjoying the residual warmth and musk of sweaty, athletic sex and crushing orgasm.

She wasn't in the bed.

He touched the cold sheets to see if she'd been up for long, and noted the open washroom door. The room was dark

Gar glanced around, noting the lack of Naru and the lack of her scattered clothes in mild confusion, feeling anger overtake the confusion.

'No,' he muttered aloud, unaware of even speaking. She'd _left?_ No.

He glanced around again, noting the fading scent of her perfume.

She'd left him.

He'd pleasured her and she'd run when his back was turned.

Angry, he lay on the bed, smelling her perfume as it faded and the slowly diminishing scent of her orgasm. Briefly he recalled the taste of her lips as she came around him and cried out into his mouth.

Gar narrowed his eyes, staring at the huge gourd in the corner as he made plans.

He grinned diabolically

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naru's week was fairly uneventful. She went to class as usual, and went to work when she was scheduled to do so. She studied and slept, but didn't feel like going to the bar with Kellie and Manda on Wednesday night as usual.

Something wasn't right.

She hadn't gotten enough of him. Enough of Gar.

Disallowed any major training due to the civilian populace around the city; she meditated a lot and did many, many miles of running. It bored her immensely.

But she wanted more of what Gar had done to her. She couldn't get thoughts of her one night stand out of her mind. She wasn't sure if it was just the fact that he was her first, or if it was the fact that he was so damned _hot,_ but she needed more.

Kellie had told her she'd always remember her first. Naru didn't like that idea, and wondered if the way to stop that would be to have someone else the next week to obliterate the memory.

She didn't really like that idea, but she didn't want to be longing for Gar's touch if she'd never see him again.

She didn't want to be craving his mouth on her body if she was called back to Konohagakure. That just wouldn't be good. Tsunade would guess for certain, after all, as her protégée, Tsunade knew her almost as well as Team 7.

Convincing Kellie to go to the bar on Friday was nothing. Manda had been mad that Naru didn't want to go on Wednesday, so Naru made noises about feeling ill due to her course load and work schedule. Manda forgave her. Not a big surprise, Manda was a forgiving sort.

They went to the same bar. Naru felt a bit odd, as if people were looking at her, wondering what she was doing there when she picked up last week. Maybe some of them thought she was a bit of a slut. Little did they know. Naru tried not to let it bother her.

Naru and Kellie drank and danced, while Manda was slutting it up for the boys as usual, which she just enjoyed, even if she didn't feel like picking up. Kellie seemed interested in a pretty blond, and Naru realized that Kellie had a thing for blondes.

Naru shrugged, couldn't blame her, he was sort of cute.

She herself approached one of the easy looking Sasuke boys to dance, slightly disappointed in the selection. There were only four boys that looked even remotely attractive to her.

She let the boy grind her; she hadn't bothered getting his name. She let him touch her over her clothes, and realized that she wasn't even remotely turned on. Naru let him bit her neck to see if it helped.

She was even going to lean in to kiss him until he arched a perfectly plucked brow, looking over her shoulder. He nodded and backed away, turning to find a new dance partner.

Naru whirled to see what had driven the pretty boy away…

She met Gar's oddly flat aqua teal gaze as his eyes burned into her.

Naru gasped quietly, below the music, and flushed. Halfway elated, halfway petrified, she let him grasp her as a slow song came on. His hands were less than gentle as his fingers dug into her exposed waist, and she decided that wearing a short shirt and a skirt that hung onto her hips might have been a bad idea.

She glanced up at his eyes, feeling scorched with the anger she saw crystallized in the depths, hidden under the flatness.

'-ehe, heh,' she fumbled. 'Umm, fancy seeing you here?' she blushed at her inanity and looked away from him.

'That blush goes all the way down to your breasts,' he whispered in her ear, glancing at the conservative crew neck she'd buttoned all the way up.

Naru flushed even deeper if she could. Was he just being an ass, or did he want something? 'And you make this tiny moan when you're coming, you bite my lip to try and stop the noise, but you cant. And then you run away when your partner isn't looking.'

'Uh, heh?' she offered sheepishly.

'Why Naru? I left you a note.' He looked disappointed. 'I was gone less than twenty minutes'

She noted that his makeup was completely obscuring the odd facial tattoo, and he'd dyed his hair to a shiny reddish brown. The reddish hue suited his pale face more than any brown that his natural color might be.

A redhead with a facial tattoo? She mused to herself. _Not possible. There is no way in hell that Subaku no Gaara could be away from his post._ It was just a creepy resemblance.

…which was probably why she'd chosen him in the first place. If he was even remotely familiar, it wouldn't feel quite so bad to sleep with a stranger. Odd logic, she realized, but that was probably it.

'I wanted to avoid the whole morning after thing,' she shrugged noncommittally and smirked at him a bit.

'Liar,' he growled into her ear, guiding her off the dance floor. 'Do you want me tonight?' he asked almost breathlessly. 'Do you want to come home with me tonight, Naru?'

All her nerves decided to fizz at that point, reminding her of how much fun she'd had with him

'Sure,' she shrugged.

'Okay, come on then,' he started leading her to the door. Naru followed hormones slam dancing against her conscience.

Hormones won, but she still felt a pang at doing this to him again. For the second time.

He led her to a small car and held the door for her. 'Are you-'

'I wasn't drinking,' he replied quietly.

She frowned as he went to the driver's side and got in.

'I was hoping to run into you again,' he offered quietly, shifting the stick and driving out of the lot. 'Were you drunk yet?

'No,'

'Then why did you agree to come with me?'

'I am a little buzzed,' she admitted, 'but I don't want a hangover. I have class early tomorrow'

'Oh,' he blinked.

Naru chuckled. 'There isn't a whole lot to say, Gar. Don't worry about it. It's a … fling now?'

He made a noncommittal noise and concentrated on the road. 'Were you with anyone other than me this week?' he asked, not taking his eyes off the road.

'Bastard,' she growled at him.

'That's what I thought,' he smirked at her. 'And even being with me didn't sit well with you no matter what you say, did it?'

'Gar,' she said his name warningly.

'We're here,' he said quietly. 'Ill give you a lift to school in the morning.'

Naru ignored him. She wanted nothing but his body. She pondered that, his body, on the way up to his apartment. There didn't need to be any conversation or anything in common. A one night stand turned fling required nothing but chemistry.

Gar locked the door after them, and turned to face her, a malicious, dangerous look on his face. He moved closer, face getting darker as Naru felt herself backing away nervously.

'Shit Gar, what's wrong? You're scaring me-'her back hit the wall and he was on her in an instant. His hands roamed, greedy, grabbing possessively as he held her pinned with his own body.

LEMON ALERT all those under eighteen, or disturbed by citrus, make your way down to the next set of asterisks please.

He buried his face into her neck, biting almost viciously, sucking her skin as if he was trying to mark her.

'Did he make you feel like I do?' he growled blackly, 'Did he turn you on? Would you have moaned for him?'

'And what if he did?' Naru hissed, furiously defiant. 'What are you going to do about it?'

'Gar growled in fury, ripping her shirt open and popping off most of the buttons in the process. 'I can _smell_ him on you Naru, I smell his cologne.' He grated angrily, grinding against her soft, giving warmth.

'And what?' she replied, pushing back against him, wrists caught in his iron grip, pinned with Gar between her legs against the wall. She knew she was making it worse, but she wanted to see him lose it. She just couldn't help it; he was so damned controlled, and so damned cold. 'I went out to pick up.'

Gar glared at her, glazed eyes meeting her own with almost feral rage.

Naru started to feel a little trickle of fear. She might be shinobi, but she had no weapons, and was utterly rusty. This civilian was strong, fast and angry. Could be a bad combination, especially since she'd had her jutsus sealed by Tsunade so she wouldn't be tempted to use them and give away her position; the only thing she had left was her speed.

'Next time, you will _find me,_' he grated, dropping her skirt to pool around her little sex kitten heels.

'But-'

'You won't smell like him soon,' he smirked evilly at her, body giving off so much heat that Naru feared suffocation. Was this side of him something he'd warned her about? The sicko? 'You'll smell like _me_,' he finished.

Naru raised a brow, trying to fight the trickle of fear, but still curious. She'd never seen this before. Were his hormones fuelling his anger, or was the anger fuelling the lust? She couldn't tell, but he looked like he was about to lose his mind or something.

Gar ripped off his clothing, all but shredding them in his haste as he dragged her over to the couch and bent her over it.

'Yes or no, Naru,' he grated out, rubbing himself against her panties, letting her feel his heat.

'Wha?'

'Yes or no.' he reiterated, tracing one finger along the waistband of her small, silky panties. '_Tell me whether or not you want this,_' he growled in her ear. '_Tell me whether or not you want _me.' He rasped darkly into the nape of her neck, just loud enough to be heard.

'Yes?' she replied quietly, stunned. He was this lost, and still had that kind of control? What was wrong with him?

He shoved her panties aside and thrust into her 'Yessss,' he hissed into her ear as he started moving.

Naru could only relax and enjoy, although he stretched her a little again, and took her fairly hard, moaning softly, constantly. He did a lot of biting of her neck and shoulders, as if he wanted her to submit to him.

She thrust back at him, moaning a bit, flinching when he pushed too deeply once. After that, he was a little gentler as he leaned over her back and dug his fingers into her hips

He muttered quietly as she felt droplets of sweat land on her shoulders.

But it was _only_ landing on her shoulders. _Was_ it sweat? She couldn't make out the words he muttered in her ear and into her shoulders as he tasted the skin and made little choking noises that sounded strangely like held-back sobs.

LEMON END

Sometime during the night, they had made it up onto the couch, and that's how she woke when her alarm went off at eight. She was all but buried under Gar's naked body, his leg and arm thrown carelessly overtop of her, face buried in her neck as he held a small lap blanket over them in his sleep.

Naru moved quickly and smoothly, trying not to wake Gar. She hoped to get out of there before he woke, as she shut the alarm off. Briefly, she crossed her fingers for luck.

Sunlight filtered through the blinds, illuminating the Spartan, almost shabby room as she searched for her underwear.

Finally finding it on top of a small plant, she shimmied into them, looking balefully at her poor, ruined shirt. Damn it.

'I'll get you a shirt,' Gar offered from the couch. 'When's your class?'

'An hour,' she replied gruffly, not looking at him. Dammit. 'Tons of time.'

'Where do you go?'

Naru sighed, dreading this whole mess. This was why she'd taken off last time. Dejectedly, she turned to him, discomfort and mild embarrassment staining her cheeks. 'You don't need to know,' she shrugged, not caring that she wasn't even wearing a bra. After all, he'd seen everything before.

'Yes I do, since I'm taking you there,' Naru shook her head at his stubbornness.

'Look, I have friends at school, Gar.' She offered shyly. 'I don't really feel like parading the fact that I've slept with some random guy all over the place.'

She noted his flinch at the random part, but ignored it. It was his own words that he was some random guy, how could he let it hurt him when she agreed?

'At least eat something?' he frowned at her, getting up to find his boxers. Naru couldn't help but ogle his body. So firm, so lithe, so…

'I was really quiet. What woke you up?' she asked

'I wasn't asleep.' He turned to face her, all his makeup intact.

'I have to go home Gar,' she mused. 'My contacts.'

'I have solution and spare cases under the sink. Use that.'

Naru almost growled. She'd slept in her contacts so she likely shouldn't wear them for a few days. Dammit. Well, going green eyed was better than getting some sort of infection from improperly cleaned lenses.

She came out of the washroom after a quick shower, sporting emerald green eyes again.

And roots.

That part bothered her. She needed to get some henna to cover the regrowth. Cover; lest she give away her identity to someone who wouldn't know who she was, because she was in another country. She didn't know why it mattered, but Tsunade had said it did. So she used henna faithfully.

Gar gaped at her, looking slightly lost.

'What?' she asked, grumpy. She lit up as he handed her a cup of coffee and a Danish. What a sweetheart.

'You just… look like someone I haven't seen in a… really long time,' he looked almost spooked at her green eyes.

She shrugged, not really caring.

Naru finally gave in and let him drop her off, flatly refusing a ride home later.

He ended up giving her his number, telling her to call him anytime if she wanted. He knew she wasn't terribly keen on sleeping with a thousand people.

'You know, you're reducing yourself to booty call, right?' she asked as she readied to leave the car.

'I know,' he replied, giving her a pained look as he realized the irony of her wearing one of his shirts, bearing marks from his lovemaking and calling him nothing to her. 'It's okay,' he cringed and looked dejected.

'Kay, thanks,' she moved towards the door, but found herself in his arms being kissed soundly again. Thoroughly.

She realized how much she liked kissing him.

'Call me soon,' he released her as they both panted for air.

Naru just walked off.

One of her friends had seen her, much to Naru's dismay. She made remarks on Naru's guy and the marks all over her neck.

Ironically, the worst of the marks were covered up.

Naru just tried to brush her off, but the girl wouldn't be deterred.

Naru finally admitted to her new fling. Her friend was supportive, but did the usual girlfriend thing, warning her not to get her heart broken.

She wasn't worried about herself. That pained look he gave her was going to haunt her for a while.

**Subaku no Hime:** thanks for reading!! Hope you liked! As I said earlier, I really don't care if you review or not, I'm just going to take this story how I want to.

And just to contradict myself, the copy and paste reviews. Again, I don't care, but I promised them.

Yay!

Blah.

See ya next time!!

Next chapter has more lemony goodness, which will be marked, but it also has the return to Konoha!!! Yaaaah, the plot moves on!!! About bloody time.

Luff and kisses all you wonderful peeps who bother to read this, and have a happy… time of year? Whatever you celebrate, or not. But have a good day.


	5. Goodbye

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime: **well there, another chapter up. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you continue to do so. Thanks very much to both my reviewers for the last chapter, I appreciate much.

Disclaimer: me no own, me no own, sobs dramatically.

**Chapter 5**

**Goodbye**

Naru shook her head and repeated the order back to her customer, mildly frustrated with herself.

After being certain the order was right, she turned on her sensible flat-soled shoes and squeaked over the tiles to the kitchen to make the order to the cook. The flavor of grease permeated the air around the kitchen, drying Naru's mouth and leaving a foul taste, and now she knew why all waitresses seemed to chew gum.

After gruffly ordering the short order cook around, she tried to walk over to the pop dispenser, ending up shimmying in the evil polyester uniform of the themed diner. She hated it sometimes. Men were always staring at her ass, and women just looked at her. _Looked,_ as in a cross between pity and jealousy. As if it was hard to get a diner job. But it could be hard to do it, maintaining cheer in the face of ragingly rude and officious customers.

But it paid the bills. She did it from six to ten hours a day, six days a week.

She couldn't concentrate. She always had trouble concentrating at work, after all, it might be fairly physically demanding, but it didn't ask any brainpower that she could discern.

So that left her to think.

Usually, she was worrying about school, or going over her memories of her lectures, but lately, that didn't satisfy her. She ended up thinking about him more and more.

The way he touched her, spoke to her, felt against her. Naru couldn't get Gar out of her mind.

Much to her eternal chagrin.

So she wandered through her day, mopping floors, taking and delivering orders and washing tables. Occasionally, the customers would leave tips, but that wasn't from the usual clientele. The usual denizens were college students, poor like her, and unable to afford a good tip.

That was fine though. She earned minimum wage.

Finally, late in her shift, her supervisor at the counter noted how distracted she was and sent her home. He'd cited that she was useless to him if she couldn't get the orders right or mop the floor properly.

Gratefully, Naru took the reprieve. It was the first time her boss had ever willingly sent her home, and it might have more to do with the fact that there were four waitresses on and no customers than the fact that she was zoned out.

On the way home, Naru did her usual bi-weekly thing and picked up some henna for her hair. Regrowth, dammit. Useless, stupid pink regrowth.

Finally, she approached her small apartment, took the key from her nicely loose bra and unlocked the door.

Relieved, she tossed the henna on the couch near the entrance and her keys on the small table in the sitting room that was the first room in her place.

Oh shit, she thought to herself as she stopped walking and looked back at the small table.

_A scroll. Shitttt!_ It was placed neatly in the middle of the small table, rolled precisely and bore the Konoha seal.

Briefly, she wondered who the messenger had been, since no one was allowed to know where she lived.

Sakura opened the scroll quickly and read it, sure it was important for Tsunade to contact her.

She'd been recalled. Her exile was finally over. They had Sasuke-teme and Itachi in custody, so she wouldn't be killed for being within five hundred miles of Japan. Thank kamis.

Tsunade hinted at an internal struggle in one of the hidden villages, and a new trade treaty that had something to do with another struggle.

Sakura was to report on Thursday for assignment.

Damn, that meant that she'd be finished with school, though there didn't seem to be anything new they were teaching this year.

Tsunade had been the only one in Konoha to know where she was the whole time. The hokage had kept in contact on occasion, sending one shinobi to deliver correspondence, though Sakura never returned it lest she come into contact with a ninja from Leaf. Sakura had always been bothered with that, never being able to write back, due to the fact that Sasuke or Itachi might be able to trace the nin back to her home, though the chakra trail would be weak.

Quietly, Sakura sighed, and decided to call Gar for one last night before she cut all her ties.

Not that she'd mind. Her friends weren't really all that close, like the ones from Konoha used to be.

She might miss having sex with pretty Gar though.

'H'lo?'

'Gar, it's Naru. Can I visit you, or are you busy?'

'No,' he replied sleepily, voice slightly choked. 'Come on over, I have some interesting news that might interest you.'

'Me too,' she replied softly.

'Can I come get you?'

'Well,' she thought for a moment, wondering whether or not she was ready to have her home invaded, even though it wouldn't be her home in a few days. 'If you're coming here, why not just bring a toothbrush and stay here the night?'

'Okay,' he replied, voice odd. She couldn't place the inflection though, and stopped worrying about it. Sakura told him where to find her, and disconnected the call. She took a quick shower and then he was knocking at her door.

_Didn't even give me time for makeup,_ she grumbled inwardly, though he'd seen her bare faced before.

'Naru,' he smiled, offering a handful of red roses somewhat self-consciously. There was something odd about him that night, something she couldn't place, but it was beyond the odd flatness in his eyes.

Then she realized that's why she was so hot for him. His eyes were flat and cold, so she'd never see anything in them to indicate she'd hurt him at all no matter what she did.

Sakura accepted the bittersweet gift, putting them in a vase by the window in the afternoon sunlight.

'Relax Gar,' she motioned towards the couch and offered drinks stiffly, putting the lie to her words.

'It's not so easy when it's day and you're sober, is it?' he asked sardonically.

Sakura sighed; a little depressed that this was the deepest relationship she'd formed in all the years she'd been exiled. 'So what's your news?' she asked, curious.

'There's a problem at work. My location has been shifted as of tomorrow.' He offered with a smile. 'I'll be too far away to see yo-erm, relieve stress with you for a while.'

Sakura sighed in relief. 'That's ok,' he looked shocked at her admission.

'Don't you like-?'

'No, it's not that,' she rushed on. 'There's a family emergency. I'm back in Japan as of Thursday, and I can't come back.' She told him. 'Ever,' she added in a final tone.

The stared at each other for a moment.

'Oh. Ever?' Gar looked a bit disappointed. 'What kind of emergency?'

'I'd rather not go into it. You understand, right?' she shrugged and looked away as hurt crossed his face, belying her earlier thoughts about not knowing what he was thinking.

They sat in silence for a bit, and Sakura thought about going to make drinks to make this easier. She didn't know why she was bothering, after all, he was just a sex toy. Wasn't he?

'Your hair is a little bit pink,' he offered inanely.

'Bad dye job,' she lied calmly, as she'd been saying the same thing for years. She went to the kitchen and got a couple glasses of coke (owned by coca cola ltd) and sat back down stiffly.

Gar just ignored the drink on the table, and watched as she grabbed a bottle of tequila from a cabinet. 'Let's lubricate, and have a go or two for old times' sake.'

'Umm,' he replied intelligently. 'Old times are a few weeks ago, Naru. And I don't need to drink to want you,' he offered flatly, standing up to meet her, putting the bottle aside as he kissed her slow and deep. 'Let me-'

The sex was as slow and sweet as it was desolately, bitterly final.

She called his name as she came over and over, eventually falling asleep in his arms. He realized that she'd never called his name during sex before. The thought made him feel a little bit empty.

He had her again before he left, memorizing her body as if it was the most precious thing he'd ever encountered. He kissed her goodbye sweetly, tucking her farther under the covers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_I was going to leave it there, but a five page chapter is a little cheap, even for me. So that was a sort of mini chapter, and here's the rest of it. There is a break of a few days, obviously. Enjoy!!!!_

'Tsunade sama,' Sakura bowed. She'd just entered the gates after a long trip home. She'd taken only a backpack of stuff she knew she'd need, some money and one single red rose. The figurines on the shelves, the alcohol, the pretty gadgets, they didn't mean anything to her. The rose was pressed in one of her schoolbooks that she'd brought with her. Those meant something.

She had clothes and books and a rose.

After three years, that's all she had that she couldn't just up and leave behind.

Pathetic, or that's what she thought.

So here she was, at the big gates of Konohagakure, walking slowly. There to meet her, she'd expected Tsunade and maybe Shizune, but Naruto, Ino and Kakashi were there to meet her as well.

'Kakashi sensei, Naruto kun and Ino chan!' she beamed, nearly crying until an orange clad shrimp knocked her over with an exuberant hug and 'Sakura chan!' yell.

Then she did start crying, right into his good old orange shoulder. She bawled like a baby. 'It's been so long,' she cried as Ino helped her up with Naruto. Kakashi ruffled her hair and Tsunade discreetly rubbed her eyes. Shizune simply smiled, hands clasped together over her heart as if she was glad the missing nin was finally home.

Then they were all hugging her, and she started to giggle through her tears. 'I missed you all so much,'

'Only we few know that you're back,' Tsunade said somberly.

'It's best that way. Some ears don't need to hear these things just yet.' Kakashi finished with his being affectionate, and pulled out the latest Icha Icha book. Sakura snorted a bit.

'How is everyone?' She asked.

'Good,' Tsunade answered.

'Evasive?' Sakura mused. 'What's wrong?'

'Come for Ichiraku, Sakura chan,' Naruto exclaimed.

'Yeah, take the day off to settle in before you're off,' Tsunade said softly.

'You'll stay with me,' Ino offered. 'After all, we have three years of gossip to catch up on, don't we?'

'I'd really like to visit my parents, guys. After all, I haven't seen them in four years. I think now's the time to mend bridges.' She smiled.

Suspiciously, conversation ground to an utter halt. She could literally hear the grains of sand grating under the weight of stopped words.

'When,' she asked, under the crushing weight of lack of conversation and another, doubly crushing weight of dead family members.

'Last year. They were ambushed on duty.' Tsunade replied.

Sakura nodded, silent for a moment. 'Then I'll visit the monument.' She said calmly, holding her grief in check.

Ino took one arm to escort her, Naruto the other, and she walked stiffly away from the gates of Konoha.

_It figures,_ she thought to herself, _I get back, and the first thing I do is to visit the monument where everything started. Where everything always ends up. The monument._

After depositing flowers at the obelisk, Sakura wondered for a moment about Gar. She'd brought white roses, for peace and yellow for friendship, she'd never felt anything but for her parents. _Roses. Gar. I wonder how he's doing now? I hope everything worked out well for him._

The trio went for ramen and talked for a few hours. Naruto was as much of a bottomless pit as ever, and put away several bowls of shrimp and miso pork ramen. Ino and Sakura were only able to put away one bowl each in the time they were at Ichiraku.

Sakura felt like her head was full of cotton. She only thought of her parents, wondering how they'd died. Tsunade sama hadn't given her any details, which she was only half grateful for. She hoped they hadn't died in any gruesome way, but generally, that's the way of death for shinobi.

Easier not to think too deeply on it.

Ino noticed that her response time with dialogue was slower than normal, and almost nonsensical, so she decided it was time for Sakura to go home to sleep.

To Ino's home of course. Sakura's home would have way too much history, and she'd never get a moment's peace from her memories.

At Ino's home, Sakura cried like a baby again. For hours.

Naruto finally left just as she was cried out enough to sleep.

The next morning, she showered and went to see the hokage at the break of dawn, much to Ino's complaints.

'I'll never heal if I don't do something,' was Sakura's reply.

Her skills were to be reassessed, first by Kakashi, then Tsunade, to see where she'd gotten rusty the worst.

It turned out, after a painful, sweaty day, that her speed and stamina had suffered the worst of it. Rock Lee was then called to help her.

He had never fully recovered from the chuunin disaster ten years ago, when they were all twelve and thirteen. He'd recovered enough of himself though, to go on most missions and he'd become one of Tsunade's favorite teachers.

Tsunade agreed with Gai, that Lee san was a genius of hard work. That genius inspired his students to greater heights than they'd be able to reach if they weren't given a role model such as Lee.

As days went by, Sakura became more dejected. Her parents had left her funds and a small house, where she'd never live because it was full of childhood memories. Itachi was in custody awaiting trial from the various Kages and Sasuke was… being examined.

That was why she'd had to leave. Itachi had found her alone one day. He told her he'd torture Sasuke to death slowly if she remained a shinobi. He'd torture Sasuke, and then he'd borrow Kabuto from Orochimaru and have him brought back from the brink of death, only to do it over and over again.

Small, untalented Sakura.

She'd been too panicked to wonder why he'd target her, she was nothing special. She wasn't a genius like Neji, or special like Naruto. She was just a normal, run of the mill shinobi.

'It was a plan to crack the foundation of Konoha,' Tsunade told her over sake at the start of one day.

'What do you mean Tsunade sensei?' she asked.

Tsunade just glared at her a little. 'you don't know?'

At Sakura's baffled expression, she elaborated. 'My own prize student. One of the finest med nins in Konoha. Everyone's friend and one of the most reliable shinobi out there. She just went missing nin overnight. Get it now?'

Sakura blushed in chagrin. 'It was the quickest indefinite way out,' she defended herself. 'I'd never take a chance with his life,'

'I know,' Tsunade shared one of those two-women-who-_know_ grins. Slightly sad, slightly bitter but with a will tempered with steel and strength of conviction. 'It was a direct stab at the morale of our nin. You're one of the most reliable nin we have- had- have. Well, you know.' She chuckled, refilling her sake.

Sakura pondered that for a minute.

'Rock Lee tells Shizune that you're almost back up to par for speed,' Tsunade looked over a few mission scrolls, writing team names here and there.

'Due to Rock Lee san,' Sakura praised. 'I am faster than ever. He is a truly gifted individual.' Tsunade smiled gently at the praise for her favorite teacher. 'Which reminds me, Tsunade san,'

'See you later then, Sakura,' the kunoichi bowed and Tsunade shot her retreating back a concerned look.

**Sabaku no Hime:** first of all, I ditzed out and was spelling my name Subaku. I just noticed that. Stupid me.

Sakura thought the little she took with her was pathetic. I don't think so, really. I've done the same thing, taken a backpack and just up and gone. (without being on lease of course. ) sometimes it happens in life, and I've never felt bad about starting over. The only thing about that that can be a pain is tying up all the loose ends! Not a lifestyle that I'd recommend to anyone, of course!

Anywho, hope you all had a good **_insert holiday here_** or not if you celebrate nothing. But I hope you all had an awesome day!

there's some Gaara/Saku fluff soon, but not yet. luff.


	6. To Sunagakure

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime **hello all of you lovely people out there in readerland! This is the last chapter before the story branches off in two directions. Here it gets pretty cliché, which I don't care about, but I still haven't decided where to take it. I guess we'll all see when we get there, eh?

Disclaimer… do I have to do this again? I will never own Naruto. Nor do I want to; I just want to play with the characters for no profit, and my own enjoyment.

**Chapter 6**

**To Sunagakure**

Ten days later…

Ino and Naruto dragged Sakura bodily from the hospital, where she'd been for six days. She'd gone to her familial home for showers and slept in the cot in the head surgeon's office. He'd given her his blessing. He'd loved the fact that she was on call twenty four seven. That had meant that he could spend some time with his growing family.

'Wounded genin from team five are-'

'Taken care of, Sakura chan,' Naruto offered. 'You're stressing their jounin out with all your hovering.'

'I know you miss your –ah- friend,' Ino frowned, 'But you're home now, you need to get over it. There are plenty of boys, and they'll all be nicer to you than Sas-that guy.'

Sakura regretted telling Ino about her fling. Well the way Sakura told it, they were exclusive, but that little detail didn't matter too much.

Tsunade glanced up from her desk, peering over the mountain of papers on it, and every other conceivable surface in the small office, even the floor. 'Ino, Sakura, Naruto,' she smiled at them all cheerfully.

Sakura guessed she'd been into the sake already. But then again, with this mess, who could ever blame her?

'It's just like we told you, Tsunade Sama,' Ino offered. 'She hasn't left the hospital in days.'

'I haven't gotten any missions yet,' Sakura retorted, wondering why they'd brought her here to snitch that she was doing her job.

'Hrm,' Tsunade mumbled. 'I have something here,' she riffled through a stack of scrolls piled haphazardly on the side of the desk, knocking half of them flying to the floor.

Sakura sniffed at the stale dust scent thrown off in the room by the crashing scrolls. She wasn't sure which she preferred, sake or stale dust. Yummy.

'I have some sensitive documents going to the Kazekage in Suna,' she mused. 'I was going to have a jounin and early genin team go, but you can solo it if you want, Sakura.'

Sakura frowned at Tsunade's offer. She never changed her mind when she had a team set for a mission. What the hell was going on? She hadn't been that bad off staying in the hospital, had she?

Unobtrusively, she sniffed her armpits, and found no problems there. She ran her hands over her hair and found it a bit messy, but not too bad.

'It's your eyes, Sakura chan' Naruto told her. 'You have big black bags almost as bad as Gaara Sama does.'

She choked. Bags that bad?

Which brought to her mind a young man with bad under eye circles who used makeup to cover them.

_Damn it, why can't I get my mind off of that man?_ She fumed to herself.

'Solo it's a B rank mission, if you want it, Sakura,'

Sakura nodded shortly. 'Come get the documents tonight, I have some correspondence to write as well.'

Sakura bowed and left, still annoyed at Naruto and Ino snitching on her.

Although, it did get her a mission, and she was going on it alone, so it wasn't all bad.

'Are you sure, Hokage sama?' Ino asked.

'There's too much history with her family and Sasuke here,' Naruto offered in a rare flash of insight.

'Yes, a solo might do her some good. And I'm going to ask Gaara Sama to post her in Suna for a while for the med nin exchange,' she finished.

'Oh, so we're going through with that then?'

'Yeah, do you know anyone in Konoha with firsthand experience dealing with snake bites, and scorpion stings, not to mention heat stroke?' she asked.

'Good point,' Ino finished.

'Plus, your favorite student being under the direct care of the Kazekage…' Naruto said.

'Tells the citizens of Suna of our complete trust and support, as well as the other villages,' she huffed out a breath, forcing a plume of dust into the air and making the two chuunin choke and gasp.

'It will send a message to Gaara sama too,' Ino offered, trying to ignore the dust in her mouth.

'The letter I'm about to write will make sure the message is positive,' she finished, motioning them to leave.

'Got to get someone in here to clean up,' was heard as the two nin made their way out of the Hokage's tower.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sakura showered after packing. She couldn't ever recall going to Sunagakure before.

Did they have showers in the desert? Or would she be forced to use sand to scrub her skin clean? Eeeew.

Briefly, she pondered him. The _him_ that was sitting in a Konoha jail cell right now, nearby his brother's.

Sasuke.' She whispered as she lathered her hair in sea foam scented shampoo. No more Forest Green for her. Ever.

Sasuke would be tried as a deserter. A traitor. And he'd be charged for attempted fratricide.

She felt pity for him. His quest for power and revenge had far-reaching consequences. She'd accepted the dishonorable label of missing nin for him

And even if he knew, he wouldn't care. At all.

Bastard.

Sakura had almost grown able to hate the Uchiha boy. Almost.

But a childhood crush of that caliber would be printed in her mind for the rest of her life. Time had helped to fade and dull the painful urgency of her crush, and the soul-shattering bereavement of his betrayal. She would never forget though.

Sakura finished bathing, shouldered her stuff and left for Suna after some last minute directions from Tsunade and hugs from Ino, Naruto and surprisingly enough, Hinata.

About time, dobe, she thought at him, and then amended herself to ditz as she realized dobe was a Sasuke thing.

She left for the run to Suna as dusk was breaking.

She ended up pausing as the sea of sand loomed a few days later. The last leg of her long trip, she sighed, knowing that if she left as evening broke, she'd have the best part of eighteen hours before she had to rest. Eighteen hours to find one of the hidden outposts.

They were known for being well hidden in the swirling, shifting sands.

Thee days running through the sand, Sakura wanted to cry. No wonder Suna wasn't the vacation spot of choice for nin on break.

She ran, putting chakra in her feet to help repel herself from the sand. Instead of sliding around and sinking into the grainy, shifting mass, she ran as if it were the roads of Konoha. There was just a minor energy drain to deal with, which didn't matter all that much to her.

When the nights hit, she stopped long enough to toss on a heavy shirt and pants before carrying on, cursing Suna for being inaccessible.

She'd even forgotten her damned sunscreen, which meant that even when she ran during the day, she was covered from head to foot.

She didn't know whether heatstroke or hypothermia from the desert would get her first.

Six armed guards met her at the gates to Suna.

Well, two met her; the others would be hidden to the eyes of a non shinobi, and obvious to anyone of genin or higher status.

'Identify yourself,' one of the guards called in a gruff, businesslike tone.

Sakura pulled back her hood. 'Haruno Sakura from Leaf. I bear correspondence for Kazekage sama.'

The guards asked to inspect her pack, but she refused adamantly.

'I apologize, but no one aside from myself or Kazekage Sama is allowed to touch them.' She smiled winningly. 'I'm sure you understand, don't you? It's my mission.'

She watched one of the hidden guards leave, and she just stood there stupidly.

'Where's he going?' she asked.

'To see if he can find someone to verify your mission.' The gruff guard replied.

'But you've already seen my id,' she whined. 'I'm hot and tired and dirty. I want a shower and a bed.'

A female nin came at that moment to the gates. She wore a lot of mesh, had four pig tails on her head and a massive battle fan on her back. She scrunched her lovely face at Sakura for a minute.

'It's been a long time, Haruno san,' she smiled. 'The last time I saw you was not long after the chuunin exams.'

'Call me Sakura,' she bowed cheerfully.

'I'm Temari if you don't remember,' she offered, guiding Sakura past the guards. 'Your hair is a lot darker now than it used to be.'

'Henna, it's coming out now.' Sakura chuckled. 'Time has been kind to you, Temari san,'

'Drop the san, Sakura chan,' Temari chided gently. 'We've sort of known each other for long and long.'

'Hai, Temari chan,' Sakura agreed.

Temari's eyes bubbled with questions, Sakura noticed. The late afternoon was also very kind to her strong, pretty face as well. She had to be in her mid to late twenties now.

No, wait, she was only two or three?

Oh well, no matter what age Temari happened to be, she still looked really nice.

'If you wish, Temari chan, we can talk after I've discharged my mission with the Kazekage.'

Temari's gaze shifted. 'He's been in an awful mood lately, Sakura chan,' she offered as they walked down the quiet Suna street. The sun was, thank god, finally setting, and the people were starting to come out of hiding.

Sakura noticed a lot of mesh and a lot of light, loose robes being worn.

Probably very practical for the desert heat, she noted to herself, deciding to pick some up later, and maybe starting a trend in Konoha.

She chuckled to herself over that one.

'Gaara kun was attending a school far away, but he had to be called back. He's almost as scary as when Shukaku had him,' Temari shivered for effect and Sakura frowned.

'Shukaku?'

'Long gone. But he's become really scary since he got back. He tends to do a lot of work, and then when he can't work anymore, he makes a lot of noise.'

Sakura made a weirded out face and walked towards the tower. 'Then I'll be quick,' she grinned.

'There it is,' Temari pointed at a six storey structure made of sandstone ironically. 'Would you prefer I come with?'

Sakura shook her head, recalling the damaged, troubled boy. He'd been small for his age, and even the tiniest bit of kindness had confused him to the point of torture. He'd been so vulnerable, making that vulnerability a weapon at the same time. He'd been so pained, so full of hate and damage that he'd been unable to tell ally from foe.

'What floor? The top one?' Temari nodded, and Sakura snorted.

Figured, she shook her head.

'If he doesn't hurt you, we can go for odango and sake later,' Temari waved. 'I'll find you.' And with that she was off.

Sakura nodded to herself and entered the cool building. Bypassing reception with a wave of her id and hitae-ate, she made her way to the stairs.

She scaled the cool stone steps, enjoying the scent of fresh, sandy air cooled by stone, but frowned at the lack of elevator.

Gaara was as antisocial as ever.

She made her way past several sand nin, who she assumed were guards of some sort. Or maybe petitioners? Or waiting for missions?

Oh, hell, what did she care?

The few on the sixth floor landing looked at her curiously as she knocked on the Kage's door.

An older gentleman in formal robes of state opened the door, bowing low. 'May I help you?' he asked in the tone of voice that said merely by acknowledging her he was helping her.

Sakura frowned, not liking him too much. 'Haruno Sakura from Konoha with communication for Kazekage sama from Hokage sama,' she offered him bluntly. She blatantly ignored his posturing and waved him off to let her through.

'Very well,' he looked down his very considerable nose at her. 'I shall inform Gaara sama.' He backed away and quickly entered the back door of his office.

'What?' was the short bark.

'Haruno Sakura with communication, Kazekage sama.' He replied calmly.

'Very well. Have Haruno san stay in the hotel after you get the papers.'

She almost laughed at the fact that she could hear the whole conversation. Gaara had certainly gotten all full of himself, hadn't he?

The man came back, motioning for her to give him the scrolls. Sakura shook her head no mischievously.

'I cannot let anyone but Gaara sama touch these.' She argued. 'I don't care, really, but I have to do it that way, because those are my orders.'

'Very well, Haruno san, but be _quiet_' he let her into his office and sat back behind his desk.

Sakura glared, gliding through the room, relishing the scent of wood polish and old, well-kept books. Not bothering to look beyond the honeyed wooden floor, she placed the scrolls on the desk quietly.

'Report here before you leave, Haruno san,' he said quietly, and from his voice, she could tell he hadn't lifted his head from the scrolls he was engrossed in.

Shaking her head, Sakura left.

She didn't think too much on the walk down the stairs, she was busy admiring the stonework on the walls. Reliefs were sculpted into the stone, beautifully done of desert scenes with the sun just rising over them. Night scenes with tents set up and a lone guard dog standing sentry.

She supposed it was a nod at the nomadic ancestry most of the Sunagakure ninja had.

'Hell,' Sakura cursed as she stepped out into the rapidly cooling night air.

'What's that? Temari asked, appearing beside her.

'Nothing,' she smiled wanly back.

The pair made their way towards a small restaurant and took a booth in the back. A waitress took their orders and walked away, bringing back sake moments later.

'The last time I saw you,' Temari started, after pouring sake, 'you were trying to defend that Sasuke kid from Gaara when he was pissed,'

Sakura fl inched at the mention of Sasuke, and Temari made a note not to say his name again. 'Sorry,' she apologized. 'Then we hear you made chuunin, then jounin. Then three years ago you were called missing nin overnight? We'd never heard anything. Nothing about trouble involving Haruno Sakura, nothing. What happened?'

'Itachi,' she said. 'He told me something. He offered to torture _him_ to the brink of death, have him healed and do it over and over again if I stayed nin.' She said. 'Tsunade sensei and I decided I could be a civilian for a while until they were found.'

'He's awaiting trial. He's a criminal, almost as much as Itachi. Tsunade should have called you back long ago. He was with Orochimaru willingly,' Temari offered without any sympathy.

'She asked me to come back many times. I refused until _he_ was in custody.' Sakura laughed bitterly. 'And now, even if he knew what I did for him, he wouldn't care.'

'You love him,' Temari stated without inflection.

'No, not anymore.' Sakura shrugged, draining her sake and pouring each of them another. 'I sort of hate him now. But I still care about him. I guess I always kind of will,'

Sakura sighed and shook her head. 'Now, tell me what Temari did over the last ten years. I want to hear it all. '

'Well, I'm jounin now,' she shrugged. 'Married a genius boy by the name of Shikamaru,' Sakura's jaw dropped and she squealed loudly, bringing her sake up for a toast. After their cups met and they drank, Temari continued.

'We're trying for another rugrat. Kankuro's at home watching Ami right now.'

Sakura gaped and made plans with Temari to see the baby in the next few days, before she left Suna.

Later that night, drunker than she wanted to be, she was walking past the Kazekage tower when she heard an almost inhuman wail.

Something in her heart almost broke at that, she was sure it was Gaara. He'd been through so much in his life, and she wondered if he'd ever find healing.

His wail, though brief, chilled her to the bone with the pain and grief in it. Maybe she was just really drunk, or maybe that was what Temari had meant when she had been talking about Gaara making a lot of noise late at night when he couldn't work any longer.

Trying not to think about it, Sakura made her stumbling way to the hotel and up to her room, where she had a really long soak in a tub of cool water, followed by a quick drunken shower and finally, curling up under crisp white sheets that had to have more than a two fifty thread count.

She sighed and allowed her head to spin drunkenly off into dreamland.

**Sabaku no Hime** yeah, no fluff in this, Gaara almost doesn't appear. Don't get too upset, please. Next chapter has lots of fluff and a lemon thrown in for fun.

I just had to put that bit about them not looking at the other. It's just that life is stupid like that sometimes. You miss things, maybe a school friend from ten years ago is in a grocery store and leaves ten minutes before you get there. Most of the time, you don't realize the things you miss, because you missed them. If you knew, you wouldn't miss them. Sometimes life just wants to bash you over the head with things you missed, and then just leaves fang marks in your arse. That's going to be fun. Life or irony if you wish is about to leave some serious fang marks on poor Saku's butt. Hope she doesn't scar easily. Heh.

Thanx for reading! Luff you all.


	7. Mednin Transfer?

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime**: well, looks like we're at chapter 7 already, eh? Thanks for sticking with me. I have a habit of not updating for a few days, then putting up two in one day. So bad. Anyway, here's where I take the story where I feel like, just because I can.

I got two reviews for the last two chapters! Awesome! Thank you DE-LISH-IOUS and XxPainfulMemoriesxX for your kind words!

Again, thank you all, lovely readers, for doing what you do. Enjoy!

Oh, if anyone bothers to review, can you answer a question for me please? I don't go into too much detail with description of locations or what my characters are wearing; am I leaving too much to the reader's imagination, or do you like being able to put the story in your own setting?

Also, sorry for any inaccuracies about aneurysm. I only looked up the basest facts, but I know they kill really quickly. My good friend's mother passed a year and a bit ago due to one. If you're interested, Google it, there are many interesting sites devoted to prevention, care and describing the surgeries. Not for the weak of stomach.

**Chapter 7**

**Med nin Program?**

a/n you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Here comes the cliché fun! Let's see if we can do something original with it…

Sakura ran down the hall, panting loudly. She tore out the hotel door and bustled past people, nearly screaming her rage. She was late. Late, late, for a very important date (oh, come on! Alice…)

She tore through the streets recklessly and nearly got a concussion on the doors to the Kazekage tower as she plowed through them. She didn't even look at reception as she raced up the stairs and into the secretary's office.

'Haruno san, please excuse the shuffle. The med nin transfer program is just new to us, so we don't have quarters for you yet,' he offered with a little more respect than yesterday. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was a med nin?

Likely.

'Med nin transfer?' she asked, stupefied.

'Yes, Haruno san, you're stationed in Suna indefinitely,' he replied, shuffling some papers. 'If I could get you to sign some of these forms, we can have an apartment for you by next Friday,'

Sakura scowled in fury. Tsunade hadn't said anything about this. Med nin transfer? No way. 'And who okayed this without telling me?' she raged at him. 'It was the Kazekage with Tsunade sama, wasn't it?-' at the secretary's abashed look, Sakura plowed past him into Gaara's inner sanctum…

Where five men were sitting around, talking in low voices until she entered.

Gaara looked up and met her emerald eyes with pupilless jade ones. Those oddly flat pools of jade widened briefly and his mouth gaped a touch.

'Oh, shit,' was all Sakura could say.

'_You will stay here,_' he told her, raising his arm in an imperious gesture to point at her. 'The rest of you, get out, _now!_' he roared.

Sakura's legs wouldn't move. Her arms wouldn't move. Her brain wouldn't move.

She blinked, noticing the men filing towards the door as if Gaara was going to rip them to shreds if they stayed.

Which he likely was.

That was her chance, she realized. She whirled as the few men threaded through the door, making a break for it. She ran into Gaara's chest, nose knocking against his very familiar chest.

'Shit,' she mumbled again, looking for a way out.

'It's you,' he accused angrily. Sakura cringed as he moved towards her. 'I guess I can call back the ANBU I had searching for you,' he moved closer to her slowly.

'Wha? You had people looking for me?' she asked, stupefied yet again.

'Did you think I'd give up that easily?'

She shook her head as if to clear out the mounds of stuffy cotton that had invaded and taken over her brain. It was really hard to think with cotton instead of a brain, she blinked. 'I was looking for you.' He told her with a mirthless laugh. 'And look, here you are; you're already a shinobi, and you're from one of the hidden villages I'm allied with. How nice.'

'ne?'

'Well, that means that I don't have to look for you anymore, and I don't have to make an alliance to get in your pants,' he told her, eyes sparking with something predatory and frightening.

'It's finished, Gaara,' she backed up slowly, stopping only as her legs hit the desk. He was following her. He was trying to pin her in a corner, or somewhere he could hold her down.

_Have to get away,_ she thought to herself. _I can't let him pin me like this. I'm too vulnerable…_

'Is it?' he raised a nonexistent brow, drawing attention to the blackened circles around his eyes, and she found herself wondering why he still had insomnia if Shukaku was gone. Sakura nodded wanly and he replied with a chilling smirk 'I say it's not.'

She squeaked in surprise as he leapt on her, knocking her back. He was fast. Faster than even Rock Lee, she worried. She hadn't even seen his muscles tense to- _oh shit!_

Scrolls and pens scattered every which way as Sakura hit the desk, thanking kamis for the fall-breaking properties of rolled up paper. Then she stopped thinking as his lips crushed her own, demanding, conquering.

LIME ALERT: LEMON LITE LEMON LITE LEMON LITE LEMON LITE ye have been warned.

Sakura couldn't help her response as his lips softened on hers, gentling the kiss from demanding to questioning. She kissed him back, sucking softly on his sweet tasting lips as she groaned deep in her throat. It had been way too long since she'd had him, and she could feel the heated anticipation welling in the pit of her stomach with a simple kiss.

'Yes,' she groaned against his mouth, arms circling him to clutch him closer as her legs wrapped around his waist for anchoring since she was too far back on the desk for her feet to hit the floor anyway.

He made a small choked noise and let his hands roam her small body. He ripped at her clothing impatiently, smirking against her mouth as buttons popped to expose her breasts covered by a thin layer of binding. Gaara didn't even bother to ask this time as he pulled the binding down and cupped the weight of her breasts in his hands, thumbing the nipples, tracing his fingers softly around the gentle curves.

She bucked against him, needy, but he didn't seem inclined to give her what she wanted, so in a flash of dominance, she stood and tossed him onto the desk, straddling his hips and letting her short skirt ride up.

Gaara twitched as she simply undid the front of his heavy cotton pants, flushed at the feel of her touching him in place of the coarse woven cloth. She leaned down and kissed him, allowing her tongue to sneak out so that she could lick the corners of his mouth, taste the tea he'd been drinking at the meeting.

He made a questioning noise as she freed him, not bothering to undress him anymore than that. Sakura looked down, seeing that part of him in the light for the first time. It looked…odd. Without the covering of shadows, candlelight and slight intoxication, it looked like a big fat worm with a retractable head. It was also a lot closer to red than she imagined it would be due to the paleness of his skin.

_Oh well, why worry?_ She thought to herself. _It might look funny, but it makes me feel pretty damned good._ With a mental shrug, she brought her panty clad core against it, leaning down for another softly searching kiss.

When she backed away, she noted the slightly terrified look in his eyes and the small, helpless moans escaping his throat 'Sakura- please, I need,' he blinked at her, frightened. Of what she didn't know, so she slid against him again, moving her panties to the side, ready to sink down on him.

His hands clenched fitfully against the lip of the desk beside his hips and her knees, and Sakura felt herself grinning in triumph. Her skirt let down just a smidge as she moved up to take him in herself. 'Saku­-_ra,'_ he ground out as she started to sink down on him.

'Yes,' she smirked, taking him in her, hips jerking convulsively as the door crashed open. Sakura felt the blood drain from her face as the invader didn't just leave, but panted breathlessly and leaned against the doorjamb.

Gaara, being himself, sat up with her still on his lap, pulled her skirt down to cover their vitals and crushed her breasts against his chest, hiding her face in his shoulder to save her some embarrassment.

'Don't look at her.' He said, voice deadly calm. 'This had better be really good.'

'Kazekage sama, we can't find the mednin from Konoha,' a deep baritone rang out across the room. 'Oh, Haruno san, I note the bright pink hair.' He sighed.

'There is a patient at the hospital with head and spinal trauma. She fell from a rooftop, fractured her skull, splintered a bit of her third lumbar vertebra and severed a few nerves with the splinter. We were told you specialize in nerve repair, Haruno san?' he asked.

'Meet me there, _hold her vitals steady until I get there._' she got off Gaara as the mednin ran off, closing the door behind himself. 'I need a shirt. _Now._'

'Here,' he tossed her one of his own, and she barely noted the stylized badger design on the back as she tossed it on and leapt out the window on chakra fuelled legs. 'Bye,' she called back as she ran down the side of the building and raced through the streets towards the busiest entrance to Suna.

The hospital, all white tile and cement, was the largest building in Suna, and very well-equipped, she noted with relief as a few nurses rushed her through a scrub up and into classic black scrubs.

The child lay on a bed in the emergency ward, barely breathing. She was pale as death with honey blonde hair and small for her seven years according to her chart. Four mednin surrounded her, using chakra and monitors to keep her vitals still.

'Her body is going into shock,' one of the masked nin told her quickly. 'She severed a few nerves in the bundle at the base of her spine. She'll be paralyzed for life if nothing can be done, Haruno sama,'

Sakura frowned, taking in the smell of disinfectant and sickness, the sound of methodic blips and heavy breathing of the poor mednin who seemed to be running short on chakra.

'The fractured vertebra cut the tissue around her spine as well. She has blood pooling there.' A female mednin looked up, dark mysterious sloe eyes pleading silently.

'Redirect the flow of the pooling blood,' she said, heading to a chair by the patient's head.

'I am, medic,' the sloe eyed mednin replied.

'Good. Else?'

'Cranial bleeding. She's having a rupture in an aneurysm.'

'Has she ever shown aneurysm before?' one of the medics made a negative noise. 'So it developed due to head trauma, and it's ruptured?' at the nod, she frowned. 'How heavy is the hemorrhaging?'

'Mild to medium,' came the reply from the nin by her side, working obviously on her spine. 'It might stop bleeding by itself, but we don't want to chance it.'

'Good,' Sakura replied. 'Someone hold the nerves close with your chakra. I'll heal the aneurysm then fix the nerves. That's going to knock me for a loop. Can someone mend the vertebral splinter?'

'Not right now. All on call medics are in the hospital and very busy.'

'Okay,' she took a deep breath, sitting by the little girl, knowing this was a bad choice, but the only choice a moral medic could ever make. 'I'll fix it then.'

She glanced down at her tiny patient; the little girl looked so innocent, so helpless. Sakura nodded to herself. This was the only choice she could make and live with.

'Hurry, Haruno sama,' one cried at her. 'Her pulse is getting erratic. Her body doesn't like the chakra we're using- it's too invasive.'

'Okay,' she replied and dove in after a moment's concentration. She wended her way through the healthy cranial tissue, trying to find the angry red of injury, or worse, the blacking grey of dying tissue.

There, the posterior inferior cerebellar- she could see the angry red, and the small amounts of blood pooling around the artery. Damn it. It didn't look immediately deadly, but one could never tell with the human brain. She pushed onward, healing cell by cell as quickly as she could. She used her chakra to irritate the cytoplasm and mitochondria into using sugars and creating heat, slowly, skillfully manipulating each dying cell to divide to replace the dead one.

In the brain, it was always the most difficult thing to convince a cell to divide. Cranial cells do _not_ divide and reproduce.

After what felt like days, she stopped the rupture and finished repairing it, glad she hadn't had to resort to surgery like clipping the damned rupture. She didn't like drilling skulls, and left it to the actual medical doctors, but she knew the presence of a metal clip on an arterial weakness interfered with chakra flow.

Briefly she pulled out to switch the location of her chakra instead of wasting the time and energy to wend through the child's body. That was when she realized that she was sweating hard and breathing even harder. Her scrubs were literally soaking with sweat, giving her a clammy, cold and damp feeling. Yuck.

She glanced around at the laboring medics, glad that the ones who had concentrated on slowing the aneurysm were now down at the spine, helping there instead of going for coffee as if their job was done.

Sakura felt a flash of pride for her fellow doctors and medics. The healing community was something beyond a calling. It was downright spiritual.

Shaking off the moment of introspection, she dove back into the girl, quickly finding the damaged vertebra and nerves.

Fixing the damage to the little girl's nerves was as exacting as the brain; and felt like it took ten times as long.

Energy flagging, she kept going. There was no stopping. She _had_ to fix this little girl. No child should be punished forever for climbing and having fun, it was too unfair.

Sakura could hear her breath coming in short labored gasps, and realized that with her chakra waning, she was starting to surface.

Shit shit shit, _no! _she swore to herself. _It can't end like this_.

Vaguely, she could hear her own vocal cords voicing her distressed cries as she ran out of chakra in the middle of something important. Something life or death.

'No,' she wailed as her own body turned traitor on her and started to shut down.

Until she felt a wave of chakra wash through her system, and she cried out in triumph.

Sakura seized the unstable chakra and used it for her own nefarious purposes. The little girl would be well, and would walk again. There was no room for error or hesitation. She didn't know where the gift of chakra came from, but she wasn't above grabbing it psychotically and doing what she would with it.

She did a mental happy dance as she realized this chakra was considerably more than her own. There was just _more_ of it, and it was _stronger_ than her own. There was literally _tons_ of it! Her mind jigged and slam danced as she slowly moved the splintered chunk of spine back into place and mended broken bone and blood vessel, re-liquefying the pooled blood that had begun to clot and coaxing it back into muscles and veins to refill with oxygen at the child's heart.

But the chakra was slightly unstable, and she didn't know why.

After what seemed like years and eons, she finished; the baby girl would be fine, she'd walk, she'd talk and she'd live to climb up houses and cause trouble another day.

Sakura opened her eyes, a weary, drained smile on her face, finally aware that she's being held up by someone. She blinked and glanced around at the four mednins who were euphoric, but staring at her slightly stunned.

She looked around to see why they were stunned.

And met flat, emotionless pools of jade under an unruly mop of bright red hair. He was holding her, his front to her back, arms around her waist. He'd lined up their chakra centers, and she could feel the tiny trickle still escaping him. He didn't even seem tired.

'Kaze-?' she mumbled.

'Rest now,' he said softly into her ear. 'I'll take you home. Be easy, you did well, Sakura.'

She really didn't want to. It wasn't that he wasn't comfortable, because he was. It wasn't the fact that he was Gaara, who'd tried to kill her when they were young and gave in to her seduction when they were older. 'Don't tell me what to do.' She grumbled at him as he picked her up bridal style.

'Sure,' he smirked down at her, and pulled her head in to rest on his shoulder.

Just for a minute, she conceded. She could close her eyes for just a minute, until she had a bit of strength back and then she'd walk on her own.

The last thing she smelled was the warm scent of his clothing and clean, fresh sweat. Clean sweat doesn't stink like normal sweat, she noted. It was warm and salty. He smelled like this after sex, only there was the musky scent of orgasm atop it.

**Sabaku no Hime** I'll leave off there for now. I'm no good at cliffies. Again, I'm sorry for any medical inaccuracies. Due to the fact that I'm neither a doctor nor med student, I don't know a lot of things. And I don't get my neurology course for another year or so. Please bear with me peeps, and thank you kindly for reading!!

Next chapter… contains an emotional Gaara and an angsty lemon. I know he talks too much and he's developed a lot, but being in school will force anyone to talk to others. I think it's a natural progression for him to be able to talk more, since he's been around that many more people and not killed anyone, plus he's older now. People change a lot as they age.


	8. Some Fang Marks

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime** hey all, how goes it? I don't have too much planned out after this, just a basic plot sketch, so it might be a few days before I update again, but in the meantime, enjoy.

Thanx to those of you who reviewed: SweetBebot, I promise, I'm not tryin to kill you, lol. VanetiaC, dark Alley, DE-LISH-CIOUS and PinkANgel0303, thank you for your kind words. I hope I don't let you down with this one. Also, thank you to those of you who just read, I hope you're enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying writing it!!

Happy reading…

Disclaimer… me no own…

Warnings… angst, lemon meringue and language. Fluffy lemon is marked with the lemon alert banner.

Anywho, on with the story…

**Chapter 8**

**Fang Marks in the Butt…**

Sakura woke up feeling like shit. When did the whole Konoha track team decide to run her over? And why hadn't she been warned about it beforehand? Whatever had she done to them but heal their knees and Achilles tendons?

She moved slowly, experimentally, trying to see if there was a part of her that didn't feel like it had had brillo pads run through her veins and mashed muscles. Really, whoever had taken a sledgehammer to her was going to get it.

She shifted her head a bit, even her nose hair ached. Her eyelashes hurt. But at least she had a warm, familiar pillow that still smelled pretty good. Although it was a little to firm for her liking.

'Hrnnnnnn,' she moaned softly, feeling a hand stroke down her hair and trace the line of her jaw tenderly.

'You slept for a long time, Sakura. Do you feel any better?'

'Did you see who pounded me into blood pudding?' she asked sarcastically. 'But for real, remind me why I'm a medic again?'

'Because you're Haruno Sakura, and that's as much a part of you as pink hair.' He told her softly, voice rumbling against her head and vibrating in her ear.

'Hnn,' she shrugged carefully. 'Good point. I need a shower. I feel gross.'

'You're still in your scrubs,' he told her.

She was slightly stunned. What? She'd slept with him, and he didn't?

'You don't trust me.' He told her softly. 'I don't take advantage. It's happened too much to me, I won't do it to you,'

She breathed a sigh of relief.

'There are towels and whatnot in there,' he told her. 'And the toothbrush from that time,'

Inwardly she cringed at the reminder of what she'd done. Without missing a beat, as if he hadn't been trying to strike at her, he picked her up gingerly and walked towards an open door.

Said door led to a massive, white tiled washroom with a raised soaking tub, a shower stall built to do acrobatics in and a back door. She assumed that led to the toilet, since the large room had none.

'You'll feel a lot better in a few,' he told her, placing her on her feet and going over to turn on the shower and adjust the temperature. Then he turned on his heel and left.

Sakura, seeing her chance at pain relief, didn't bother hesitating; she just stripped off and jumped in the cool shower. It felt like liquid heaven on her bruised, ruined body.

Chakra drain. Damn her foolish self, but she was still proud. The little girl would be okay.

She soaped up her body, washing off the clammy sweat that had poured off her body during the healing and wondered how Gaara had ever put up with the smell of her sweat all night long without dying.

'Razor is on the shelf if you need,' he told her softly, and she eeped. She hadn't heard him come in.

'Thanks,' she looked at him over the shower door like he'd grown two heads. Razor? She glanced over. 'But that's your razor,' she said.

'I know. It's got a fresh blade on it. Don't worry; it won't wreck your legs.' He told her as he piled even more towels on the counter. There was a small stack of clothing beside that, and she didn't even want to think who that was for.

'Uuh,' she offered eruditely.

'I don't have any underwear for you, so you can wear my boxers. They're just here,' he told her, and turned to face her after motioning towards the pile.

She could feel her face glowing red, and noticed that when he looked over at her, he started to blush too. So he could tell her to use his razor and wear his boxers without a problem, but looking at her through distorting, frosted glass made him blush?

Then she realized that her hair was still covered in foamy shampoo and ducked under the spray. 'You could have told me,' she grumbled at him.

'umm,' he offered,' I thought you knew.'

'Well, stop looking,' she growled.

'Why worry about it? I've seen every bit of you,' he offered, voice going rough. 'Touched every bit of you. I've been _in_ you; I had your virginity,'

'It's complicated now.' She told him.

'Yes. I'm aware of that,' he smirked at her. 'I'll feed you when you're done here,' he turned on his heel and left again.

Finishing quickly, Sakura shaved her legs, replaced a new blade and got dressed. She had to admit, it felt good to wear his clothes. But the weird part was wearing his boxers. That was almost too creepy. It just screamed relationship right in her face. She was surprised when she looked in the mirror that the screaming voice of 'relationship' hadn't blown her hair into a straight back sonic the hedgehog kind of spike.

After brushing her teeth, she went out to see the rest of his place, wondering how kingly it would be if the washroom was any indication.

Sakura found herself surprised yet again by him. His home was very small. There was a tiny bedroom that she'd been in with his small, twin mattress on the floor; then there was a hall that led past the massive washroom that belonged in a castle. The sitting room and kitchen were all the same room. Cramped, with shelves and counter in one corner and another well-worn dark couch along the wall. There were a few large, cushy looking pillows around here and there on the floor and a coffee table that was covered in dishes from a few days ago she guessed.

She also noted a coffee mug and snorted.

'What's that?' he asked her softly 'Feel better?'

'Yeah, thanks. It's just the great Kazekage, insomniac extraordinaire, a coffee drinker.' She smirked at his serious face.

'I drink tea, not coffee.' He told her. 'Now, steamed rice with egg? And how about some turnip cake I had from a few days ago?'

'You cook?' she asked, dumbfounded.

'Not really. I can make rice and eggs okay. Temari usually stocks me up so I don't starve. She likes to cook. She's teaching the baby already.' He said, a slightly wistful look on his face.

Sakura's stomach dropped. _No way. No, no, no,_ she thought to herself. _Do not think that. Do not ever think that._

'The great Kazekage,' she chuckled. 'Cooking rice and eggs like a-'she really didn't want to finish that sentence. This was approaching something she'd rather die than think about. It was approaching intimate conversation. Shit.

'Yes?' he turned around, spatula in hand. 'The great Kazekage what?'

She smirked, and looked over to a clothing rack in the corner.

…Where hung his robes of office.

Well, shit.

Double shit.

'Hungry enough to try to catch flies, Sakura?' he asked with a small snort.

She finally figured out that her mouth was gaping open, and did her very best to shut it, but she was busy. She was finding as many new ways to curse herself as she could.

_I slept with the Kazekage._ She thought to herself. _I slept with Gaara, Sabaku no Gaara, the Kazekage of Suna. He's the leader of the hidden village of sand. What the hell am I doing wearing his clothing and knowing exactly what he looks like under those robes?_ She could feel herself starting to panic, and her stomach dropped even farther if it could.

She felt his arms circle her shoulders and he rested his chin on the fleshy part of her shoulder. 'Heh,' he said softly, following her gaze. 'Yeah.'

She felt herself twitching. 'So what are you going to do now then?' he asked her darkly.

'I-uh…' she replied, realizing she really had to do something about her educated responses. Didn't want people thinking she thought she was too smart for them or anything.

'Yeah,' he agreed. 'Me too.' He buried his mouth in her neck, where the marks from one of their more primal matings were almost completely faded. 'You were playing with me.'

'Why did you let me?' she asked. 'And I wasn't playing with you, I was playing with Gar.'

'It doesn't matter. You shouldn't play with people like that,' he told her, voice rumbling in her ear.

'You let me, anyway,' she retorted. 'And why were you looking for me?'

'Umm, because I want you?' he told her, chuckling darkly. 'Revenge, little Cherry Blossom' he turned her around to face him and what she saw in his face made her back away a step.

Dammit, _why do I always end up backing away from him?_ She asked herself angrily. She wasn't a submissive or passive person. Why was she doing that?

But she still backed away. 'I wasn't trying to hurt you,' she told him softly as he moved to close the distance. She was aware of the couch near behind her, and almost sure where this was leading, but she wasn't sure she liked it. He was being scary, reminding her of the old Gaara.

'Hn,' he offered.

Enlightened, Sakura backed up, hoping to sprawl over the couch, do a backwards flip and get away from him. The look in his eyes was the one he used to wear. The one that meant someone was going to die really soon. As it was, being the only killable person in the place, she wanted to get the hell away from him.

'Hey, back off, you're being weird,' she said, raising her hands in a warding gesture as she tensed to leap over the couch.

'You should have gotten to know me better before being with me,' he growled as he landed on her, hard. 'I did give you the choice, you know,'

'I-'

'You played with me.' He growled. 'Now I'm going to play with you. Just because I can.'

LEMON MERENGUE LEMON MERENGUE LEMON MERENGUE

She didn't like the look in his eyes. It scared her. It was that damned look.

Shit. Shit and double shit, she worried.

She had brief flashes of Gaara covered in blood, smiling his evil, demented smile and dripping blood.

'What are you going to-?'

'So soft,' he mumbled, almost to himself as he started to pull off her clothing. 'So soft and warm,' he muttered. 'You're the first. The only.'

'Hey, wait-'she stopped midquery. 'What? _Nani?_'

'You're my first, Sakura,' he told her, staring into her eyes. She saw him watch the shock cross her face and he smirked cruelly.

Gaara yanked her pants off roughly, pulling the loaned pair of baggy boxers with them. 'Let me feel you, let me be alive,' he rasped at her. 'Just this once. One more time I need to be in you, _with _you.' The edge of desperation in his voice warmed her, and made her nervous at the same time. Desperation equaled reliance…

His hands roamed over her body and she started breathing again. He wasn't going to kill her. 'Let me be part of you… just for... a little,' she felt her arms wrap around him of their own volition and didn't protest too much.

'Please, let me- I need- when I'm in you…' his words broke 'I can feel. I need it, please Sakura, I need to feel-'

She moaned. She couldn't help it. His hands, his mouth, his words. It had to be some sort of spell, but if it was, she wasn't going to bother trying to break it.

'Love me,' he cried into her ear as he entered her. 'Why can't you just- why does no one _love me?_ Why won't you just love me a little bit?' he wailed, body jerking against her. 'Just a little bit- oh god, please… please, Sakura…'

She did the only thing she could without lying to him. She wrapped around him and let the storm rage itself out. He jerked against her, drawing short, sharp cries from her as he hit the right spot again and again. She just let him rage against her, desperate loneliness washing itself out against her, intensifying his loss of control.

Abruptly he stopped, simply lying on her. In her. Motionless.

She blinked as he tipped her face up to look in her eyes.

'Are you okay?' she asked, stroking his face gently with the palm of her hand.

'Sakura,' he grated, looking angry again 'Say my name.'

'Gaara?' she asked, curious.

'Again,' he demanded roughly.

'Gaara?'

'Yes, Gaara.' He repeated. 'Sabaku no Gaara. That's me. That's who you're with, Haruno Sakura,' he jerked against her roughly, reminding her how they lay.

She frowned. 'I know that, Gaara,' she told him.

'You have one last chance,' he grated at her. 'Leave me now. Turn your back and run, little kunoichi,' he glared into her eyes, his own showing nothing except her reflection.

'Umm, why?'

'I won't be abandoned again.' He smiled cruelly. 'Leave or face the consequences of your actions.'

Sakura looked around helplessly. 'I- Gaara, I-'she frowned, unable to come up with the right words for him.

'Or will you let me have you?' he asked, eyes growing wide.

'Now is a _really_ bad time for this,' she told him.

'You're right,' he flashed his teeth in a parody of a smile. 'You want me?' she nodded. 'Then so be it,' he growled and claimed her mouth as his body claimed hers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sakura lay in his arms, sated, replete and barely awake. Her head lay pillowed on his shoulder and she could hear his heart beat slowing down. He sighed, a brief rattling of air blowing her hair away from his face and she felt his arm tighten around her, holding her closer.

'Aren't guys supposed to like… space after?' she asked, slightly confused. That's what she'd always been told. Women want to cuddle, men want to breathe.

'Hn,' he rumbled against her, wrapping his other arm around her, pulling them into a face to face position where her face was in the hollow of his throat. 'Sure. In a while,'

She sighed against him, not really sure of what to do now. Should she go? She knew she should, but she really didn't want to move. He was just too comfortable to lay against, his body heat staving off the chill of the apartment.

Sakura closed her eyes briefly. 'I should go. We don't want all of Suna knowing how their Kazekage had a fling with some random kunoichi from Leaf,' she chuckled, starting to get off him.

'They already know, Sakura,' he told her, not letting her go.

'Oh,' she mused for a moment. 'That wasn't supposed to happen.'

'Why not? And it did anyway. That medic caught us the other day in my office. He's probably already told half of Suna by now.' He shrugged against her. 'Why worry about it now. Done is done.'

'Hn,' she replied, using his favorite tactic against him. 'I should still go. I need some of my own clothing,'

'Sure, leave me now,' he scoffed, holding her tighter.

'Can't breathe-'she choked at him, struggling in his ever tightening hold. Was he that scared that she was going to leave?

It struck her then that he was attached to her. Not good. It was just a fling; he wasn't supposed to get attached. She had to distance this a bit more, quickly. 'I'm heading home, Gaara,' she told him calmly. 'I'll bring your clothes by your office in the morning before I go to work.'

'You're leaving.'

'Yes, for now. I have things I have to do, and so do you.' She got up off of him quickly.

'But I-'he muttered, sitting up, not even bothering to try to cover himself.

She was rummaging around for the loaned clothing, not really paying attention to him.

'You're not leaving again,' he said, nonplussed. 'You can't. I've had enough of you leaving me already,'

'Umm,' she offered dryly. 'You don't own me?'

'You let me have you,' he told her angrily. 'You knew full well how I felt about it- about us.'

'There is _no us_,' she told him, yanking on the clothing and heading towards the door. 'I'm going. This doesn't need to happen.'

'Sakura,' he said her name softly, caressingly. 'Stay the night,'

'I can't Gaara,' she told him, not really sure why she couldn't, aside from the fact that he seemed to be getting way too attached to her, way too quickly.

She glanced over at him, eyeing his naked body greedily. She couldn't help it, she wanted him. Wanted him with the hunger of the starving, wanted him so badly despite the fact she'd just had him. She couldn't help admire his leanly muscled body as he stood up and started walking towards her.

LIMEALERT LIMEALERT

Sakura felt her knees grow weak as she watched his body start to tense and harden under her gaze.

'Take it off,' he growled at her, eyes glowing dangerously.

Not really aware of herself, she did as he asked and dropped the borrowed pants.

'Good girl,' he growled again at her, feral this time as he went to his knees before her and wrapped his arms around her legs, spreading them as much as he could in the confines of the waistband.

She let out a startled cry as he buried his face between her legs, and reached back for some kind of support.

Finding nothing, she started to overbalance and fall, until he caught her. Quickly, he lay her on the floor, and returned to where he was, jerking her legs up and over his shoulders. She couldn't help the moans that escaped her, soft, needy sounds that she wasn't happy letting out fading into the confines of the sitting room.

The smooth stone floor was cold against her back, bruising her spine, but he wouldn't let her go, his arms wrapped around her waist as she tried to struggle away into a more comfortable spot.

'Stay,' he muttered softly into her folds, tongue wriggling against her, his move designed to drive her mad, to make her agree to his demands.

'No,' she forced the words out. 'I can't- ohhh, hell, Gaara, stop it-'she squeaked, but he refused to let her go.

'Please,' he whispered, moving up over her body and laying on her, weight supported by his knees and elbows as he curled into her. 'Please, Sakura, I don't want to be alone tonight.

'I'll do what you want,' he lowered his face so that she couldn't see anything but his messy red hair. 'I promise, I'll keep going all night, I swear, I won't stop, just, please, don't leave me alone yet. I can't- it hurts so bad, I have you for a few hours, and I always wake up alone, or you're trying to leave me.'

'Gaara, it's just a-'

'Don't you dare say it.' He whispered, voice sounding tortured.

_I didn't want to hurt him,_ she thought to herself. _I didn't want to hurt him, but here we are. He's begging me. He's begging me, and he's so sweet; maybe just a little crazy still, but he's so sweet, and he's trying so hard._

'Please, don't say it again,' he whispered into her ear. She could hear the tears that he wouldn't let go thickening his voice. 'I can't stand hearing it, over and over again that I'm not the one you want. I can't stand hearing that I'm just a cheap substitute for _him._'

She sighed against his hair, fight draining out of her. He wasn't though. Maybe the first time he was supposed to be, but not anymore. He wasn't a substitute. He was Gaara.

'Okay,' she sighed. 'Come to bed then, Gaara,'

He startled against her, and didn't waste time. He gathered her up in his arms, refusing to look in her eyes and all but ran for his room.

He made good on his promise though. He made love to her again and again until she was too sore, and all but fell asleep on him. Gaara smiled to himself as she breathed heavily, sleeping peacefully against him.

'Yes, Cherry Blossom,' he mouthed against her silky hair. 'It's revenge. Just not the kind you were expecting.'

**Sabaku no Hime** well, that was…fluffy… and there was almost no plot movement. What the hell was Gaara talking about, revenge? He didn't tell me yet. He'd better not be planning anything evil. The only thing he told me was that he wasn't letting her go again; unfortunately that screws my plot. They were supposed to argue and she was supposed to ignore him for a couple weeks after that.

Dammit. I hate it when a semi thought out plot develops its own ideas. My muse, who looks suspiciously like Gaara has a bad habit of doing that. In fact, he's probably laughing right now at how screwed I am.

Sakura wasn't supposed to develop feelings for him yet. She was supposed to be a hard ass, but noooo, she has to get all,' It's okay, he's sweet' on me. What am I gonna do now?

Anywho, enjoy. You have as good an idea as I do where it goes from here.


	9. Damn Sand by the Ton

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime:** alright, ladies and gents, just to warn you, I've utterly lost the thread of this story, so it's going to change drastically. The basics will be the same, but I've lost some continuity. I'm going to try to get back on track, but it'll be pretty hard.

Thanks to my readers, and those of you who review: Doeringk, Sweet Bebot, I.Plead.Ignorance, Calm Serene, DE-LISH-CIOUS and cvelvetdrones for your kind words. I really hope this isn't a letdown for you.

Listening to: explosions in the sky, all of a sudden, I miss everyone. Try some of their stuff. It's post rock audiogasmic.

Disclaimer… standard. Me no own, you no sue.

Warning gore. There is some pretty gross stuff in this chapter. I'll mark it, of course.

**Chapter 9**

**Damn Sand by the Ton.**

Sakura closed her gritty eyes tiredly and rubbed at them in a pathetic attempt to get some of the sand grains and fatigue to stop hurting. She mused to herself gratefully that at least she didn't wear contact lenses anymore.

The hospital was as quiet as it was ever likely to get, considering that this was a hidden village full of nins. The night nurses meandered around on their circuits, delivering pain medication and making sure all the patients were still breathing and had heart and brainwaves.

She staggered over to the office that had been given to her as soon as she'd settled into the routine and made her way over to the desk with a sigh. Her hair hung limp and greasy in her face since she'd let it down after her rounds. The roots hurt from being up for two days straight, and she could feel the hair shafts twisting in her scalp.

She sniffed sadly, knowing that she was coming down with a cold that had been going around the hospital lately.

She plunked down at her desk pathetically, shoving the canisters of cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol off to the side, knocking a few cases off the desk as she plunked her head on her folded arms.

_Gods am I tired,_ she thought to herself. _ There's nothing that I've done that another medic can't do, but there's so _much_ of it. I can't keep this pace up forever, and studying the Suna practices on top of that is going to kill me._

Sara, one of the night nurses knocked on the open door and poked her head in. 'Sakura san,' she admonished. 'You need to go home and rest up. You're no good to anyone if you get too sick to move.' She told the younger woman, bringing her a steaming cup of something or other.

Sakura looked at it dubiously and took a sip, finding the bitter herbal taste to her liking. 'What is it, Sara?' she asked.

'An old recipe from my grandma,' she replied, patting her salt and pepper hair under her hairnet. 'It'll help your immune system.'

'What's in it?'

'Ginger, orange and a few other things,' she replied mysteriously. 'It'll help warm you.'

'Thanks,' Sakura replied.

'Now get yourself home before the sandstorm comes up. The medics in tomorrow are going to have enough trouble getting in, we don't need worn to death medics staying here and getting sick.' Sara gently reproved her. 'Go on now, before the storm comes in.'

'Sandstorm? What sandstorm?'

'We've known about it for days. You mean no one warned you?' she looked affronted at that. 'You'd figure someone would have, you being from out of village and all.'

'How bad is it going to be?' Sakura asked quietly.

'Oh, nothing we're not used to,' Sara chuckled softly 'but get home, and close your windows. There should be a set of double shutters on each window outside the glass. Close them first.'

'Thanks,' Sakura muttered, trying to muster the energy to move from her spot. 'Do you think anyone would care if I just slept the storm out here?'

'I wouldn't, but I can tell you for a fact, that if you're still here when there's someone what needs help, you're going to get sucked into it.' She laughed outright at that, and Sakura knew that that was a habit with all hospitals.

'Will I be able to make it in tomorrow?'

'I doubt it. The medics that are scheduled during sandstorms are all used to spending up to a week sealed in here, though it won't be that bad this time,'

Sakura gaped.

'Maybe a few days. Tops four.' Sara went on, blithely unaware of Sakura's growing distress.

'What am I going to do for four days?'

'Rest,' Sara replied flatly. 'You need it. You've been wearing yourself out from dusk to dawn to dusk again. Go get some sleep before I bat you with a broom.'

'Yes, mistress,' Sakura replied, yielding gracelessly. She had developed a pretty deep friendship with most of the nurses on staff, since she was around at all hours. Sakura found it always good to be friends with the nurses and orderlies, considering that they were the ones that kept a hospital going so the medics and doctors could do their thing.

Sakura barely made it back to her erstwhile home in one piece. The storm had already started when she'd left the hospital, and the wind was whipping sharp grains of sand around like razors.

She'd had to cover most of her face with the hood of her cloak, and by the time she got in, there was sand in every crevice of her body, between her teeth, up her nose, behind her knees.

Dragging off her clothes to go for a shower, she verified that sand had even managed to get stuck in the crack of her butt, though how it got there, she'd never know.

She left the sandy clothing in a pile at the door to her small apartment and walked down the tiny hall to the washroom where fluffy towels and hot water waited.

She loved the new place. It was warm, but light and airy at the same time. High ceilings and polished granite floors worked well with the white walls and light colored furniture. The rare piece that was made of wood was of imported pine, lightly varnished and glowing warmly.

She turned on the spray full blast and grabbed her favorite old sea foam shampoo and floral green body wash.

When she finished, she walked over to her bedroom naked and riffled around in her underwear drawer in the dark since she was too --- shit!

She ran around the house wearing a bra and panties, shutting the double outer shutters on all the windows to keep the sand out. Also to keep the sand from smashing the windows. For some reason, glass was very pricey in Suna, she'd noticed, though they had the makings for it all over the place.

Satisfied that her borrowed apartment wouldn't be destroyed, Sakura padded slowly back to the bedroom, this time turning on a light to choose some nice lounging around the house clothes.

In other words, ratty old sweats.

She stopped abruptly to see a dark haired man sitting on her bed, red eyes swirling malevolently.

'You just couldn't pick a day that I've had some sleep, right?' she asked, angry. 'Wait, no, you couldn't pick a week where I've had more than four hours sleep, could you, bastard?' she glared at him, flouncing over to the closet for clothes.

'I warned you to stay away.'

'And Konoha had you in custody.' She retorted, angry. What the hell was he doing here? She'd never done anything to him; she just wanted to be left alone.

'Pfft,' he snorted. 'Yes, under lock and key, and I could never, ever get out.'

'What do you want?' she asked, slipping on a pair of jeans, knowing that something was going to happen, and she'd rather not be seen outside in her ratty old sweats from middle school.

'You owe me something.' He replied. 'I haven't killed the boy yet. So you owe me.'

'And what? So when you're done here, you'll just go and kill him?' she snorted, stunned by the speed with which he performed a paralyzation jutsu.

_Shitballs,_ she muttered to herself.

'I can make this easy, or hard. Either way, I'll get what I want out of it, but you can suffer or not. I really don't care.' He reached over with a senbon, pricking at her throat softly, not even making blood flow.

Sakura remained silent.

'You can speak, you know,' he told her softly, moving the needle down her arm and pricking the tip of her finger.

GORE ALERT GORE ALERT GORE ALERT GORE ALERT GORE ALERT

Brutally, he shoved the senbon deeper into her finger, and she could feel it scrape bone.

A cry of agony was wrenched from her throat as her finger screamed. Her nerves lit on fire, zapping painfully at her head as he scraped the senbon around her bone. She couldn't help the scream that ripped from her throat as her hand lit on fire.

'Fuck, Itachi. You're such a dick,' she spat at him. 'What do you want, you freak?' she finished with as much bravado as she could after he jerked the senbon out of her finger roughly.

'I want you to die, little girl.' He told her softly, sticking the senbon into her wrist, just pricking the skin. He pulled it out, and grasped her hand, tracing the veins on her wrist with the needle slowly.

Anticipation of the pain to follow and shock from the bone scraping he'd done earlier had her panting and sweating. 'What did I do to you?' she asked, pain making her voice weak. She already knew what was going to happen. There was a sandstorm going on. No one was out of the house at this time of night, or in a sandstorm.

Someone would find her bloody, tortured corpse in a few days.

'Don't you know?' he asked, conversationally, removing the needle from her wrist to study it. A single drop of blood dripped down the shaft of the needle, to glob on his hand before he shook the bloody senbon at her.

Sakura closed her eyes, feeling a tiny spray of her own blood hitting her face. Eeew.

'If I knew, would I ask?' she told him.

'You weren't supposed to come back, ever, stupid girl.' He told her, eyeing the senbon with a cruel smirk. 'So, since you did, I think I'm going to cut you up a little.'

Sakura tried to school her expression to hide her fear, meeting with abysmal failure.

'Scream. There's no one to hear you,' he whispered in her ear roughly as he took her hand and shoved the senbon into the cartilage between wrist and arm bones.

She screamed for him, loud.

She screamed until she was hoarse, and he just teased her, hurt her. By the time he was done with the senbon, she couldn't talk; there would have been permanent damage to her voice if she wasn't going to die soon. He stuck the damned needle everywhere, all over, scratching her bone, trying to hurt her as much as he could.

'Scream, yes,' she heard as he punctured the soft skin of her stomach after he pinched a bit of it, piercing it right through the skin, as if he was going to stick a piece of jewellery through. 'I've got loads of time. This sandstorm will last for days before I have to kill you.' He gripped the other side of the senbon, and ripped the long needle through her flesh, forming a jagged wound across her belly that bled freely.

She could feel the warm liquid dripping down her stomach to soak the waistband of her pants.

'You sick fuck,' she whispered in her damaged voice. It came out as a whistling croak, even her breathing was messed up by all the screaming.

She bled from a hundred small puncture wounds, all over the place. Her face, her hands. He seemed to like digging the senbon under her nails. He seemed to _love_ that, since it hurt her. A lot.

He did so again, and she started to go blank, unable to take the pain any longer. She couldn't faint, the pain was too deep, but her mind went off somewhere while her body drooled and screamed and flinched. She was going crazy with the pain, she knew, and didn't really care. Maybe if she went over the edge, he'd lose any satisfaction in hurting her and just end it.

By the time he pulled out a small knife, Sakura was convinced she'd died and was in hell. The pain.

Then he started to cut her. Not much, just a gouge here and there so that he could see some blood. The knife wounds hurt less than the senbon. . Every single nerve she had was on fire, save the spots she couldn't feel any longer. The spots he'd cut nerves. Spots where he'd cut off chunks of flesh, leaving open, gaping wounds where he would grind a finger in, torturing muscle and other things inside her.

Then he stomped one of her feet.

She heard the sickening wet crunch of bone breaking, and screamed as he ground his boot on the broken appendage.

_Oh kamis_ she prayed, tears running down her bloody cheeks, _why can't I just go into shock and die?_

GORE ALERT END

**(With Gaara, Temari and Kankuro)**

Where's your girlfriend?' Temari asked, voice teasing as she held her little daughter in her arms, making funny noises against the child's neck.

Bright belly laughter echoed through the room as the farting sounds on the baby's neck tickled her.

'She's at the hospital,' he replied, taking a deep drink of his tea. He set the mug on a table beside the overstuffed chair he sat in and tried to get up. No such luck. The chair was trying to eat him. He was sure of it.

'So you admit there's something going on?' Kankuro asked with a smirk.

'Of course I admit it,' he replied. 'I've never _not_ admitted it. _She's _the one who won't-'he caught himself before he started to sound bitter, and looked over at the tea, a funny feeling in his stomach. He'd had a weird feeling all day, like something was wrong, something just out of his reach. Something just out of his sight.

'When is she coming home?' Temari asked

'I'm not too sure,' he replied softly. 'Maybe she's home now, but she hasn't come to visit me in nearly two weeks.'

'Is it possible you did something that pissed her off?' Kankuro asked, looking to Temari for affirmation.

'Maybe, but I don't know what I could have done,' he groused.

'Are you pressuring her for anything?' Temari asked astutely. 'Unless she really loves you, she's going to get angry if you try to pressure her into a relationship.'

'But,' he started, and then looked down again, knowing he'd done wrong. 'I don't want her to leave me,' he told Temari.

'She will if you pressure her,' she told him gently.

'I should probably go and talk to her,' he sighed deeply, feeling angry at the impotence of his situation. Trying to have a girlfriend was like trying to court sleep; it just wouldn't happen if he was concentrating on it. Maybe he should just relax and let things happen?

But he couldn't. She'd leave if he didn't try.

'I'll be back soon,' he said. 'With my girlfriend,'

'Wait until there's a lull in the storm,' Temari warned. 'Your sand won't protect you from sand, and we don't need the Kazekage being blown away into the middle of the desert, now do we?'

xxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'I'm getting tired, little bitch,' he told her.

She couldn't say anything, couldn't move, could barely think beyond the pain. Her whole body was on fire, violated and maimed, ruined beyond belief. He'd beaten her, stuck her with needles, crushed bones and cut her. She was almost ready to pray for death.

'As much fun as this is, holding up an illusion is tiring, holding up your paralysis is just as wearing.' He glanced down at a watch on his wrist and smirked. 'Only four hours. I'd hoped to play with you some more, but I need to get some sleep.'

Sakura blinked dumbly at him. He'd somehow blocked off her ability to use chakra along with the paralysis. Damn him.

'Haven't figured out who I am yet?' he mocked, dropping the illusion with a wave of his hand. 'I don't think you'll be able to stand up when I leave. I'll come back when I've had some rest,' he smirked cruelly at her, slitted eyes flaring in the gloom as he looked over at the light.

He'd splattered the room with her blood, including the light fixture. 'I'll play with you later… if you're still alive,' he smirked and poofed away.

Shit. There was nothing… shit…

And then Sakura blanked out, since there was no new pain, her body just crashed. Her cheek met with the floor, leaving an echoing smack that she didn't hear.

One name echoed through her fevered dreams, dreams made into horrifying night terrors at the trauma she'd endured, made even worse by infection setting into the wounds that had been left open and bleeding.

_Orochimaru._

**Sabaku no Hime** well, that was…unsatisfying. Cliffhanger and gore. I'm not good with gory stuff, hostel made me want to get sick, and I don't write it well. I can write a fight scene, and a large scale war, complete with siege machines, but not a gory scene. I've never had a broken bone, so I don't know how it feels, and I've never yet needed stitches, so I can't really imagine how it feels. That's probably why I tend to stay away from it.

He also did a lot worse to her than he was supposed to, and it was actually supposed to be Itachi, not Orochimaru doing the hurting of her. Gaara was supposed to find her in the middle of it, too. What the hell are these guys doing to me?

The muse sits off in the corner, laughing maniacally, telling me that he has a lot more in store for me that doesn't go with my stupid plot outline. He's scaring me, and not being cooperative. Can I trade him for someone else's muse? He's pretty good, but he's utterly mad.

I hope the next chapter is better, because as much as we're getting to the climax of the story, I don't know what it is. Anywho, I hope you enjoyed it a little more than I did, though I doubt it. I'm really disappointed in this one. You have my apologies, and I'll try to get something worth reading out as soon as I can.


	10. Nearly There

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime** well, here we are, another chapter. It's closing in on the end, I think two chaps tops left, maybe three. I'm ashamed of the last chapter posted, just because it wasn't my usual quality. Again, I'm not good with gory stuff. I figured it'd give me some practice, but it didn't help, that scene in the last chapter.

Another thing I should mention is that I'm a healer, not one to hurt people, even my characters. It disturbs me. And I have a morbid phobia of needles. You should see me when it's time for bloodwork or a tetanus booster, hehehehehehe. It's pathetic.

DE-LISH-CIOUS, sorry, I know it was pretty sick. The rest will be easier.

Love Child, thank you. The rest of it won't be so gory, but a cliché or two might be fun. Btw, if you wouldn't mind, sign in with your review, I'd really like to read some of your stuff (and maybe get some pointers from a pro on the gory stuff) if you don't mind.

So to make up for the last one.

Enjoy…

**Chapter 10**

**Nearly There…**

Sakura didn't know how long she'd been out of it until she heard the door to her small apartment open. The click of the lock setting again sounded ominously as she prayed for the death of either herself or Orochimaru. He was back, already damn him. Why couldn't he have let her die of infection?

She could feel the infection in the large, weeping gouges setting in, and she knew she wouldn't last long without medical help. She'd taken too much damage to be able to do anything about healing herself, and even if she could, she'd checked. Her chakra was blocked somehow.

Steps echoed through the apartment, and Sakura shivered in horror.

What was that bastard going to do to her this time?

'Sakura?' Came the horrified whisper as she saw his boots come within her line of sight.

Salvation in the form of a former monster, she almost smirked at the thought.

'What? Oh shit,' she could hear the surprise in his voice and watched the boot lead to a knee that thumped in front of her half closed eyes. 'Are you still alive?' She could feel him checking for a pulse in some places, but other times, he leaned over and she couldn't feel anything.

Briefly, she wondered how extensive the nerve damage would be if she lived.

'Hold on,' he grated desperately as he picked her up. A tortured moan escaped her throat, a sound she didn't think she'd be able to make as he shifted her and picked her up, damaging infected wounds and causing partially clotted spots to bleed freshly.

'What the hell happened?' he growled in her ear as he shifted her to form the seals for a teleportation jutsu.

When they arrived at what Sakura assumed was the hospital, they were met with cries and she felt herself taken from him and laid on a gurney. She sniffed at the smell of the antibacterial air spray they used, and the underlying stench of illness, injury and death.

Or maybe that was just her own scent right now. She wasn't sure. She didn't really care, though, either. She just let them poke and prod her as the pain grew more and more distant, until she finally didn't feel it any longer. There was only the grayness and an occasional voice in the endless, glittering gray.

She felt at peace. The fact that she'd been killed so brutally wasn't an issue anymore, if she was dead. She thought on it, once, and decided that it was a meh kind of issue.

Sakura allowed herself to float around, happily oblivious to anything but her own peace and the distinct lack of 'pain' she felt. The not-feeling was amazing, she loved it. She wasn't sure how long she was there, in the spot of no-feeling before she became disturbed by one voice that seemed to echo through the grayness.

She could hear it, the slightly desperate, furiously raging edge to it almost cut her right to the bone. It wouldn't go away, the voice was there, just there. He was bothering her; his deeply crackly baritone irritated her. She didn't want to listen to him. She just wanted to not-feel, and not-hear anything.

But he wouldn't let her. For a while, she couldn't make out the words he was saying, could only hear the endlessly furious babble of his dark voice. Then, after he'd finally shut up for a minute, he was back, talking to her. And she could hear just what he was saying.

Well, mostly. He was telling her how she should come back to him, and how he wanted her to get better. How could she get better? This not-feeling place was the best place she'd ever been. But she was growing mightily annoyed with this voice that wouldn't stop talking to her.

Violently annoyed.

She decided that it might be a very good thing for her to find the owner of the voice and shut him up. So she set off with the vague notion of bopping the voice's owner on the head and finding the no-feeling place again.

She walked for what seemed to be years, and didn't find herself getting any closer to the voice's owner, but he still wouldn't shut up.

'Shut up you damn idiot!' she yelled in a random direction. Then she realized that the voice had been coming from all around her, and she'd just been haring off somewhere. The only problem with that was the fact that the scenery never changed. Just glittering grayness, utterly featureless.

'Wake up, Sakura,' she heard the voice call, more distinctly this time.

'Shut up you dobe, I don't want to leave.' She yelled back.

Then something changed, and she felt herself rising slowly through the featureless gray, rising to where she didn't know. It felt like she was swimming up, trying to gasp for air, and she jerked her arms reflexively.

Her eyes shot open and a deep, startled breath filled her lungs as she saw a perforated section of ceiling.

'Are you awake?' a voice off to her side asked.

It was that voice. The same damned voice that wouldn't let her rest. 'Shut up, you wouldn't leave me alone.' She grated out, voice feeling weird.

'You're awake,' a sigh of relief and rustling of clothing. The presence by her side disappeared for a minute, only to be replaced with two.

'Sakura,' a familiar female voice echoed in her ears. 'You made it back to us. Thank kamis,'

'What do you mean, Tsunade sama?' she asked, blinking the fuzziness from her vision and trying to look over to her old sensei. For some reason she was far too weak.

'Orochimaru,' Tsunade replied. 'You were out for a week,'

'What are you talking about?' Sakura asked calmly. 'Orochimaru is in the village of sound. Don't you have some ANBU trying to kill him?'

'I'm not too surprised. Gaara, I warned you about this. When she's well enough, can you and your sibs take care of her for a while?' Tsunade asked, and Sakura moved her head just enough to bring her line of sight to bear on her lovely blond haired sensei and her red haired tormentor. 'Don't try to prod her memory. Just take care of her.'

'Not a problem, Tsunade san.' He replied coolly. 'I'll send some of our ANBU to help yours, since he came into Suna; it's our problem now too.'

'You're stretched awfully thin,' Tsunade protested.

'Shut up, both of you,' Sakura griped. 'I have a headache.'

'You need to wake up, Sakura,' Gaara chastised softly. 'When will she be well enough to take out of the hospital, Tsunade san?'

'I don't know. Ask one of the nurses; Sara seems to have been keeping an eye on her lately,' she replied, and Sakura closed her eyes, trying to ignore them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Sakura came to, she felt like she'd been run through a meat grinder. Every part of her body ached. Even her bones ached. Why would she hurt so badly?

Opening her eyes to a small slit, she groaned as bright lights invaded her vision, dazzling her.

Blinking a little bit, she realized that it wasn't that much light, just that she'd been very deeply asleep. The room she was in was pretty dim, all in all, she decided, noting the shadowy outlines of furniture.

She shifted a little, moving the heavy blanket that was on top of her, and snuggled in to the soft mattress more deeply, with a soft yawn. Maybe she should get up. This definitely wasn't her apartment, nor was it the hospital where she'd been for some odd reason.

Stretching slowly, catlike, she felt half of her spine and most of her other joints pop satisfyingly. With a soft sigh, she moved her feet to the edge of the bed and down, encountering floor. The mattress was on the floor. Hrm, odd. Where was she?

_Oh well. No big deal,_ she thought to herself as she sat up slowly. Her stomach growled, trying to munch on her spine, and she decided that wisdom would dictate food.

Slowly, she slid out of the bed, onto the floor, enjoying the feeling of hard granite against her back. Sakura sat up slowly, and grasped a nearby table to help her to her feet. She walked through the shadowy room and out the door, knowing she looked somewhat zombie like. Oh well, she had to have been out for a while, so who really cared?

_Food, then shower,_ she decided, finally feeling the greasy, itchy crawling sensation on her scalp and realizing that the old sweat smell wasn't the bedclothes, it was actually herself. _Disgusting. Did I have a fever or something?_ She wondered to herself as she meandered down a short hall to a set of stairs leading down.

Wisely, she took the railing as if it was a lifesaver, and held tight, knowing she wasn't quite steady on her feet yet.

She was grateful for that when vertigo hit her as she looked at the landing, fifteen steps below.

Taking a deep breath, she looked straight in front of herself, and took the steps slowly, one stair at a time. She allowed herself to stay on each stair as long as she needed to, to catch her breath and find the strength to keep going.

She finally looked down, certain that she had to be near the bottom due to the fatigue and length of time she'd been on the stairs, only to see the top of messy red hair and a huge gourd.

'Uhh, hi,' she offered lamely as she met his aqua gaze.

'You should have called,' he growled at her, letting his arms uncross as he started up the steps towards her.

'Gaara,' she croaked, wondering how long she'd not spoken for.

'What?' he asked as he reached her stair and scooped her up over his shoulder, turning and walking effortlessly down the steps that had seemed insurmountable to her.

'Uuh,' she offered, loving how smart she sounded. _Kamis, Sakura, great way to impress someone. Just sound educated like that._ She snorted inwardly.

'We'll get you some food. Then you sleep.' He told her, and she bounced slightly against the gourd on his back.

After a good deal of bouncing around, he set her down, to her endless gratitude, on a kitchen chair. It was padded, thank kamis, and she relaxed.

'You should have called me,' he accused. 'I would have come. Now, ramen?'

She set her head down on her folded arms and made a sound, agreeing. 'Where are we?' she asked, curious. This wasn't Gaara's place.

'We're at Temari and Shikamaru's house,' he replied. 'Temari and Kankuro have been looking after you when I have to go to work.' He told her.

'What happened?' she asked, perplexed. 'I don't remember much. I got home from the hospital while the sandstorm was going and then I woke up in the hospital and you and Tsunade sama wouldn't shut up. What happened to me?'

A weird expression crossed his face, and his nonexistent eyebrows lowered. 'You got sick. We think it was sand fever, which usually attacks in the wintertime, so we're not sure how you got it, except for overwork and being around sick people all the time.'

'Sand fever?' she asked, the name wasn't ringing a bell at all. 'I've never heard of, and haven't seen it in any of the case studies I've read over.'

'It's not something that happens often. I'll get Tsunade sama to fill you in on it when you go back next month to report and brief the Leaf med nin.' He told her as he put a pot of noodles on the stove and lit the burner.

'Okay, that works,' she replied. 'Though I wasn't sure when I was supposed to go back to report.'

'Just for a little while you're not allowed to go back to the hospital. The virus stays in the system for quite a while.' He told her, and she noted the odd way he wouldn't meet her eyes.

'Oh, okay then. Is that why my body feels like it's been ripped to shreds and sewn back together?' he nodded, scratching his nose as if he was allergic to something, and looked relieved as Temari made her way into the room.

''Bout time you woke up, Sakura chan,' she gruffed at the younger nin, heading to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of pills.

'Prenatal vitamins,' she shrugged. 'they're really good, even if you're not trying to get pregnant.'

'Really?' Sakura asked, chuckling a little bit. 'Maybe I should go and get some then,'

Gaara grabbed the pot of noodles off the stove as it started to bubble over and started dishing them out into bowls. 'Want some, Temari?' he asked quietly.

'Nah, too early in the morning for me to be eating noodles.' She smirked at them and straightened up as she heard a slightly cranky wail. 'Gotta go. Time for trouble to wake up.' She took off hurriedly in the direction of the stairs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cheesy timeskip. There's nothing really interesting happening right now anyway, so we'll just skip over it.

The lot of them settled into a routine over the next few weeks. Sakura wasn't allowed but the very barest training, so she tended to hang out with Temari a lot when the older woman wasn't busy training, or doing the other million things that kept a home and marriage going, not to mention the ten million things that kept a baby taken care of.

She babysat a lot, and read case studies that Gaara had the decency to bring home for her to keep her amused. Shikamaru wasn't taking missions outside Suna and Konoha at that time, since he and his wife were trying to get pregnant.

Gaara and Kankuro tended to take shifts in the office, leaving either of them with a little more free time. Kankuro wasn't taking too many missions either, and Sakura had the opinion that he was trying to court himself a wife to be.

She and Temari spent many hours at the diaper table or bathing the baby talking about Kankuro's up till now nonexistent love life.

End cheesy timeskip

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Three days before Sakura left for Konoha to brief the nins, she had a bad case of insomnia. She'd been sleeping almost horrifying amounts lately, mending from the sand fever. She'd finally almost recovered, and her energy levels were almost at a normal level.

So she crept down the stairs from her room, trying to be as quiet as possible so that she didn't wake up any of the others, and made her way towards the kitchen to get a midnight snack.

She found it lit, which was odd, considering Gaara liked the dark and Temari, Shik and Kankuro should be asleep by then.

So, being Sakura, she decided that it might be fun to sneak up and try to figure out why the kitchen was lit up like day.

She snuck up quietly, and peeked into the kitchen, seeing the lot of them, and wondering why there was a conference going on without her.

She smirked, deciding to come in and say hi as she got some cookies until Gaara spoke.

'She still doesn't remember,' he said softly.

'We haven't let her out of our sight, Gaara,' Shikamaru said, just as quietly.

'Orochimaru hasn't shown his face since he mutilated her,' Kankuro said. 'I wonder why he hasn't. she was talking about how he said he was going to come back and kill her when we took her to the hospital.'

_Orochimaru? What the hell are they talking about?_ Sakura frowned to herself. What did Orochimaru have to do with anything?

'She was really bad when I found her,' Gaara said, voice quieter than normal. 'He'd done some pretty horrifying things to her.'

Horrifying? From Gaara? Something _really_ bad had happened then.

'He'd pretty much shredded her. He'd poked her all over with a senbon, and she was almost dead from the shock, not to mention what he did to her with the kunai and stomping on her bones-'

Sakura had a feeling her shocked gasp was the reason all conversation ceased in the other room, but she couldn't help it.

Vague memories came bubbling to the surface of her mind, not things she wanted to remember by any means, but they were all vague, and hazed over by pain and a sense of unreality.

It was those dreams she'd been having for the last week or so. Only they weren't dreams. They were real.

_What the hell_? She asked herself.

'Sakura,' Temari chastised. 'Don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?' she said, trying to mask the horrified expression on her face.

'I remember now,' she said quietly. 'It wasn't a bad dream that kept recurring. I should have realized it,' her eyes opened wide in horror at what had happened and she stepped into the kitchen, walking over to a cupboard for cookies.

'We'll get you some counseling as soon as we can,' Shikamaru told her. 'You'll need it. And we need to deal with-'

Sakura flinched as he cut himself off, knowing that she and Orochimaru had unfinished business to take care of.

'You won't be alone.' Came Gaara's soft vow.

Sakura felt herself smiling gently at him. 'Thank you. All of you, for being so patient with me. It must have been hard to not say anything, or give away why my body was so damaged.' She sat down on a spare chair and offered cookies around.

'I guess we can un-seal your chakra now.' Temari nodded decisively.

'So it wasn't-'

'Originally, yes it was him. But when we found that you couldn't remember, we didn't want the injuries to jog your memory before you were ready to deal with them,' Kankuro offered. 'So Tsunade san sealed your chakra off for a while.'

'Oh.' She blinked, sort of shocked. 'I guess I owe all of you a major debt,'

'Not likely,' Temari scoffed, 'Although you could do something for my little brother there-'

'Temari-' he cut her off shortly.

'Well, Gaara,' she started.

'I doubt she remembers,' he told her quietly.

'I remember certain things,' she frowned. 'What am I not remembering?' frustration laced her tone as she stuffed a cookie in her mouth.

Gaara got up to get milk and glasses after he saw Sakura's distressed look, cheeks puffed out full of dry cookie.

'You don't need to remember yet, just take care of yourself, and know that everything is alright,' Shikamaru said.

'Oh?' she asked, kind of worried.

'Don't worry. You'll remember on your own when you're ready to do so,' Kankuro told her.

They left Suna the next day, a little earlier than planned, though she figured this might just be to throw off Orochimaru in case he had something planned. Her chakra was still sealed, so Shikamaru and Gaara used teleportation jutsus to get them to the end of the desert more quickly, since Tsunade was the only one who could release the seal.

By the end of the day, the two men were exhausted, and Sakura wasn't much better off, so they decided to camp on the edge of the desert to replenish energy. They had a cold camp, and ate rations out of Suna, which consisted of sun dried vegetables and preserved meats. All in all, she didn't feel like complaining, since Konoha fitted them with energy bars and meal replacement powder to mix with water.

She fell asleep almost instantly; Gaara and Shik deciding to take watch splitting it in an unequal half, since Gaara still had insomnia.

Sakura's dreams were haunted with a senbon and a kunai covered in her blood, the dripping, viscous fluid being flicked in her eyes and licked up by a forked tongue.

She woke up with a slight start to a tiny noise at the perimeter of the encampment, wisely not moving, more due to reflexive training than anything else. She thanked muscle memory and stayed silent and still, equalizing her breathing to resemble sleep.

'Why do you want her dead, dobe?' was Gaara's low whisper. 'What did she do to you?'

'Nothing, really. Konoha has Sasuke and Itachi, so I can't have either of their bodies, and I know that Sasuke liked her a little.' Came the hissing answer. 'I have my reasons for everything,' he finished.

'I doubt it.' Shik offered. 'Who's giving you orders, fool?'

'Someone's giving me, _me_ orders?' he laughed, a full-throated evil sound. 'Who could give _me_ orders?' he asked.

'Someone smarter than you, I think.' Gaara laughed softly. Sakura sat up silently.

'Yes, my little toy.' Orochimaru smirked. 'I'm going to make your death painful, and I'm also going to link your mind to those you care about, so they can witness your death firsthand,' he shot snakes out of his sleeves, one heading for each of the men, two for her.

Sakura leapt up to a tree branch, grabbing a kunai from the sheath on her side with a curse. Shit. There was nothing she could do, she was sealed.

She could only cut at the snake heads that came towards her, watching Shik starting to use his shadow jutsus and Gaara's sand whirling around furiously.

'Shikumi no jutsu' Orochimaru called, creating hand seals so quickly she couldn't keep track of it.

What? His hands worked? Since when?

Then she was overtaken with a vision of her own painful demise. She screamed in agony as the other day when he'd played with her seemed to be preferable.

**Shikumi no jutsu- death foretelling jutsu**

**Sabaku no Hime** I'm sorry to leave it here, ladies and gentlemen, but there's a pretty big battle coming up, which doesn't deserve to be an afterthought tacked onto the end of a chapter. It won't be as disturbing as the torture scene, and I won't go into much detail with her vision of death; I'll leave that to your own imagination.

This chapter was much better for me to write. Just recovery. And what is it that she's not remembering? You don't know yet, but my muse told me, and it's a doozy. He's finally cooperating with me, and when he does, the world is a fun, fun place. He's finally decided we've had enough tea that he'll be nice to me. By the way, translations for the jutsus used will be in parenthesis beside the first use of the jutsu, just so that we all know what's going on.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the wonderful information on jutsus, I'd be toast without it. Very extensive Naruto section, check it out if you want, it's the perfect research companion.

Luff, and enjoy!!


	11. Battle and More Fang Marks

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime:** well all you lovelies, here's a new chapter for your consumption. I hope it goes well, because like I've said before, I'm better at controlling battalions in word than three or four fighters. If you've any pointers on the battle scene, I'd be delighted to hear and likely integrate, with permission.

Harvest Moon Lover (you're so sweet! Thank you, and here it is)

.dark Alley- I'm not sure what's happening, but we'll find out.

GaaraandAikoforever sorry, it's later than usual, but I've had a grinding rough few days at work.

IQ TestsSuck- glad you like. The reason they're not killing each other in 10, is they're doing it in this chapter. It's not a small chunk of text, and I tend to stay within a 3000 word per chap limit. Hopefully, they get it all out of their systems soon, but it was too big to include in the last chap. (or it was supposed to be, what's left now is pretty pathetic)

To all of you who read, I hope you enjoy! ;)

**Chapter 11**

**Battle and an Extra Bite Mark from the Past**

Sakura growled furiously as Orochimaru used his _Kusangi no Tsurugi_ (Grass Halberd of the Heavens), pulling a sword from the mouth of a snake that lurched from his throat, and then the battle faded for her. She knew she was going into shock, and she also knew there wasn't much she could do about it, as her vision started to gray.

It became her surrealistic nightmare, every moment in excruciating detail, burned on her retinas and into her mind, only to be forgotten the moment it was over and being replaced by another, more horrid sight.

Shikamaru started folding out his shadow with _kagemane no jutsu_ (shadow imitation) and Orochimaru just smirked a little and stayed where he was. The shadow got within half a meter of the snake lord and stopped. It just stopped. And then she noticed that one of the snakes he's parried was going around his back, and he was getting closer.

It took her a moment to realize that she was running for Shik, screaming, and it wasn't him moving closer to her.

Then she noted Gaara's sand gushing into the sky to form a cloud above Orochimaru, and she knew that_ suna shigure_ (sand drizzle/rain) was going to pound down any moment.

Later, Sakura wished time would have slowed down so that she could have seen what all was happening, and maybe some of the trouble wouldn't have happened, but now all she could do was run, glancing around feverishly, trying to make up for the peripheral vision cutoff. Orochimaru wasn't doing anything but standing there, letting his snake hands writhe around threateningly as the sand started to fall, and she watched as one crashed through Shikamaru's back, through his spine and out his chest.

Then she noticed the kunai, thrown from instinct more than anything as it connected and sunk into the snake lord's arm. The meaty part of his bicep.

He'd not parried.

Orochimaru's oddly slitted snake eyes met hers, and he smirked as the sand rain started to pound him.

'_Sabaku Taiso!_' (Desert Imperial Funeral) Gaara screamed as the sand came down in a blanket, Sakura stopped looking and ran for Shikamaru and she felt tears blurring her eyes.

_Wait. Shikamaru is all but dead. _ She thought to herself, mind not even registering the thought in words. _I can kill the killer,_ and she turned on Orochimaru's location, eyes wide as she literally felt her sanity buckling.

'_Hiru Bansho: boka no jutsu'_ the words whispered in her ears and she screamed her rage as Desert Imperial Funeral was rendered useless.

'Leech all creation?' she mused to herself, looking around quickly for Orochimaru's new location 'Attack prevention- holy shit-'

'Sakura!' Gaara screamed as his sand came flying towards her.

She whirled, already knowing death lay nearby, not knowing what kind, and felt something hard and cold go through her lower abdomen, and puncture out the side of her buttock.

He'd missed all the nerves, she thought distractedly, but he'd hit her bowel, and she'd die soon from toxicity likely.

With a feeling in her stomach like she was going to puke and her nerves jangling painfully, she molded all the chakra she could into her fist and smashed it into Orochimaru's fish belly pale face.

She looked away, knowing that her fist had gone through his skull by the feel of it, and tried to pull herself off the legendary Grass Halberd as the sannin sunk down dead. Sakura could feel the sword pulling at her organs and slicing through her as the snake man lowered into an undignified heap. The scent of dirty blood assailed her, mixed dirt and someone's lifeblood, partially her own. Coppery and bitter, it seared her nostrils.

'Shik-'she felt herself gasp as Gaara came before her, almost unhurt save a few obvious snake bites.

'He's going to die soon.' Gaara offered passionlessly, but she knew the telltale signs of his pain. The slight twitch in his jaw, the clenching fist.

'Can I say goodbye?' She wrestled the words out, knowing that she'd be able to heal herself.

'You have a few minutes,' he told her, 'I'll carry you over,'

'Okay,' she allowed him to lift her gently, and dislodged the sword, causing a gout of blood to splatter from her abdomen. 'Let's go,' she took a deep breath, feeling her belly protest sharply, and the weird feeling of being punctured right through.

Gaara lifted her gently and carried her the few feet to their dying comrade. Sakura looked at him and blinked. There was remarkably little blood for a chest wound through the heart-

'He's – I can save him' she gasped. 'Or at least I think so.'

'How?' Gaara asked as he lay her down by Shikamaru and yanked off his own shirt to staunch blood, though he couldn't decide whose. He eventually went for Shikamaru, since his wound was worse, but he wasn't really certain of that. The sizes were different, but Sakura had some things in her belly that Shikamaru didn't.

He was almost hesitant to use his shirt, since it smelled so strongly of sweat; there was probably all sorts of unsanitary things from sweat and days of dirt on it.

'I have to – 'she frowned. 'I have to use it first. I'm not supposed to, but I'm going to die soon. He got the femoral artery, just nicked it, but I'm going to bleed to death soon.'

'So do it.' Gaara growled at her, losing any and all patience.

'Very well. Sit me up, please?' she asked, and he did, sitting her up against his chest.

'Alright. Close your eyes, Gaara, no one is allowed to see this, or know I can do it.' She told him, not really able to turn back to make sure, but trusting him for a moment.

'We'll discuss that later,' he muttered as she formed a few quick hand seals and something just at the top of her head, in the middle of her center part started to change.

Suddenly, he could see some sort of crazy seal all over Sakura's face and neck. It looked like the ornate black seal continued underneath her clothes as well.

He felt a pang of guilt for betraying her trust, but if no one was supposed to know, how would he protect her if he didn't?

'_Sozo Saisei'_ she said in a clear, strangely strong voice considering her wounds. (Creation rebirth/ genesis regeneration)

An odd light began glowing from Sakura, growing steadily until it enveloped her in blinding iridescence. He blinked, and felt the warmth of her healing chakra sweeping over him in waves, and when he opened his own eyes, he was inside the brightness too, his body warming in the energy, relaxing as it bathed in the energy of another not bent on his death.

Then it was gone.

He allowed himself a confused noise as Sakura started to sit up and lean over the dying body of their friend. Then he heard her startled gasp.

'What is it?' he asked, moving to be beside her as he scanned the area again. There was something weird nearby. There was something weird about the Orochimaru battle. It wasn't much of a battle. For a sannin, he died too easily.

'He's healed.' She turned to look at him and frowned 'I didn't know you knew healing jutsus' she said, almost as a question, choking on the overpowering stench of blood and drying sweat that coated the trio.

'I don't. I didn't do anything.' He frowned.

Then he prodded Shikamaru in the side. When he got no response, he prodded harder. Gaara was about to prod with his boot until Shikamaru frowned. 'Stop it.'

'Why?' Gaara asked.

'Your feet stink, and I'm just looking at the clouds.' He sighed. 'I was almost there, but then I couldn't go any farther, no matter if I tried. So I didn't try.' He got up, pineapple shaped hair slightly askew and disheveled from landing in dirt and his own blood.

Gaara glanced at Sakura, who shook her head in response. Don't speak of it. The words were all but spoken; thankfully Shikamaru was glancing around in curiosity. 'What happened?'

'Uuh –Sakura offered again as she glanced over to where a dead body was supposed to be. It had somehow, mysteriously and miraculously disappeared.

She'd chalk it up to Kabuto every time, if he wasn't already dead.

'Don't worry. Everyone's ok.' Gaara said curtly. 'Let's go.'

Sakura didn't want to; she made that perfectly clear with her posture. She was tired and her chakra reserve was almost nothing. Even her chakra seal was drained to nothingness.

She didn't even want to think how many years she'd taken off her life by healing all three of them. She didn't even think she wanted to know how she'd done it. Tsunade had taught her the _sozo saisei_; no one was to know she could do it. If anyone found out she could do it on others, she'd be dead in a month.

She couldn't even summon the energy to leap up into the trees, just walked as quickly as her sorely abused chakra would let her, stretching newly healed muscles and jostling organs against internal fat cushions.

Shikamaru glanced back at her once in a while as if to question why she wanted to travel by land, but she just ignored him. Gaara got the same treatment until he scooped her up in his arms and decided to carry her after asking her to stop moping and looking like death.

She sat in his arms then, enjoying the feel of Gaara's warm body cradling her. She even ignored the irritation when she bumped into some of the bony ridges on his chest like collarbone, though it knocked her jaw nicely, and deliberately closed her nose to their combined scent, though she hoped they'd find a river or spring on the way.

The rest of the journey was spent in near silence, all of them watchful for another attack. They knew that something wasn't right with Orochimaru, but couldn't decide what it was, since the body was gone when they went to examine it. That in and of itself was a general tip for Konoha nins to assume the enemy was still alive and plotting revenge somewhere while he or she licked their wounds.

The Konoha gates rose from the forest suddenly, built to blend in with the surrounding countryside, as was most of the village. Sakura had probably never been so glad to see the gates in her whole life. She wanted to kneel down and kiss them, but she figured that might not go down too well with the guards.

Besides, Gaara and Shikamaru would spread it around Suna and Konoha so she'd never live it down.

'Haruno Sakura, Sabaku no Gaara and Nara Shikamaru,' Shikamaru called at the gate guards with a friendly wave.

'Get in there,' one of the guards snorted. 'Like I don't already know it's your sorry ass comin' home for a visit.'

'Nice to see you too, Lleryn,' Shikamaru grunted.

'Aah, the Nara charm,' the woman laughed a little and motioned them in. 'Get your asses in here. Tsunade sama has been waiting for you guys to show up this week, and I'm about to close the gates for the day.'

'Why? It's still light out.' Sakura frowned.

'Strange goings on lately,' Lleryn shook her head and her thick red braid bounced against her shoulders. 'But Lady Tsunade will fill you in on that. I don't have the whole story, since I'm just chuunin.'

'Don't _just chuunin_ me, Lleryn,' Shikamaru frowned at her.

'It's true.' She frowned back and Sakura realized that something beyond weird was going on.

'Well,' Gaara said, diffusing some of the tension. 'I guess we should see Tsunade san before we find showers and clean clothing?'

'Yes. Come with,' Sakura nodded, giving Lleryn a final searching glance.

They didn't walk the sidewalks to the Hokage tower, they took the rooftops. The denizens of Konoha, nin and civilian alike were all used to the almost inaudible whisper of ninja feet on their roofs, and reinforced them, just in case for the sake of politeness and insurance policies. After all, Chouji was one of a few very heavy nin, and even if he was excellent, nobody wanted to find a pissed off nin in a bedroom where they'd fallen through an unpatched section.

The Hokage tower was the usual mess, and dust stirred at their arrival, but only a tiny bit this time. It was nowhere near enough to choke her like last time.

'So you _did_ get someone in here to clean for you, eh Tsunade sama?' Sakura laughed as the Hokage pulled her head up from the scroll she'd been engrossed in.

'Glad the three of you are here.' She raised a bowl of sake to them in salute and downed it. 'There's a few different bits of business to discuss, and you should all be here for the discussion. A few of the older jounin are coming by in the morning, and we'll go through it all then. Nine a.m. sharp.'

Sakura stifled her giggle. Tsunade? Nine a.m. sharp?

'Shikamaru, I'm surprised you didn't bring Temari. I'm kind of glad you didn't though, since she's not really up for travel at the moment with the baby.' She smiled. 'Go visit your parents Shikamaru, I need to talk to Sakura and Gaara for a minute.'

He nodded curtly and left, probably to go sigh over how much work wives were with his father as they drank beer.

'Tsunade san?' Gaara asked, a blank look on his face.

'You both know we have both the surviving Uchihas in custody, yes?' she asked.

'You had them before I left, Tsunade sama.' Sakura reminded her gently.

'Yes.' She nodded, pouring another bowl of sake. 'Well, we've done some work with them and on them, and we've found out why Itachi killed the rest of the family, and why Sasuke is the way he is.'

'Really? What's that?' Sakura asked, not noticing the narrowed aqua eyes cast in her direction.

'Inbreeding. I'll tell you more about it later, but Sasuke has been very… reticent in regards to his treatment. He says he wants to see you before he thinks about taking any medication. Will you go visit him?' Tsunade blurted out. 'I think he believes you'd never lie to him since you had such strong feelings for him.'

'And he thinks nothing has changed since we were twelve.' Sakura finished with a sarcastic air. 'Okay. I'll see him today, after I get a shower.'

'Very well. I'll tell the guards to expect you.' Tsunade smiled. 'Gaara, you're in the ambassador double, since the singles are being renovated; though I wish we'd have had the Suna nin building done. We've been trying.'

'Don't worry, Tsunade. My nins are perfectly fine with the ambassador quarters, you don't have to-'

'Suna nin are here so often. That's why we're building it, so it feels more like a home than an ambassador suite. But I've put you in the double' she gave Sakura's back a significant glance as the latter studied the spine of a dusty book. 'If you have a guest.'

'That's fine. Sakura will stay with me, of course.' He replied, looking at Sakura's back as well, but noticing the fine, strong lines of grace and good posture that Tsunade wouldn't pay attention to.

'See you at nine,' Tsunade bid them farewell as Gaara caught Sakura's elbow and guided her from the office.

The ambassador suite was coldly beautiful, and everything a visiting ambassador could want. Gaara hated it.

Sakura stood at the foot of the bed, looking around and trying to get comfortable as she unpacked her small backpack and threw the dirty clothing to the hamper.

'I'll go shower first,' she said softly, uncertain.

'Don't go see the Uchiha without me.' Gaara ordered. 'Tsunade san says he's not taking his medication, and I won't see the best medic I've ever met get hurt needlessly.'

Sakura nodded curtly and went for the bathroom. She blinked at the white tile and chrome fixtures. It was beautiful, but functional, a small tub for soaking with a shower curtain, a closed off toilet closet and what appeared to be a marble counter. She stripped off and let her feet sink into the high pile bathmat as she took a few towels from the closet behind the door.

Hopping quickly into the shower, she realized she'd forgotten a razor, but sighed in relief at the sight of mini shampoo/conditioner and body wash. She'd have to visit a chemist for razors before bed tonight, since she couldn't stand the stubble much longer.

Gaara, being himself, simply walked into the washroom and dropped his clothes. Sakura heard him enter and choked a scream before it bubbled past her throat, not wanting to be invaded on right now.

'Get out,' she called past the shower curtain.

'Why? You remember us. I can see it in your eyes every time you look at me.' He offered as he stepped into the shower with her, letting the spray soak him slowly. 'And it's not like I've never seen your body, or shampoo in your hair before.'

'Go away,' she frowned, trying to cover the stubble of several days on her legs.

'You think I care about a little stubble?' he barked out a laugh and started to lather his hair.

'But I –'

'But nothing, Sakura,' she saw the predatory gleam in his eyes and felt her knees going weak. She'd tried not to look as his body was doused with warm water, or as the shampoo rinsed off, sluicing down the hard, lean angles of his body.

Frowning, she pushed him out of the spray with a little chuckle and rinsed the conditioner out of her hair.

'Scrub my back?' he asked softly, handing her a cloth and presenting her with wide shoulders and a nice, round, tight little butt.

She almost drooled.

It had been so long, so very long, and she wanted him so much.

She scrubbed his back and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel to dry off.

'Who said you were done yet?' came the darkly sensual voice as his red head, darkened by the water, poked around the curtain. 'Come back for a minute?' he cajoled.

She eyed him warily until he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her off her feet and back into the shower. Water splashed down on the both of them as he took her mouth in a demanding kiss, asking everything from her. Demanding nothing less than all of her.

His hands trailed down her body and he pulled her tight against him, allowing slippery bodies to slide sensually, creating a devastating friction.

'When we get back from this visit to the Uchiha,' he told her, 'We'll finish this off.'

'Why not now?' she asked quietly.

'It will be dark soon,' he replied, practical.

Sakura was silent as they dressed and went to the hospital where the Uchihas were being kept contained. They walked along the sanitized corridors silently, Sakura not wanting to vent her anger, and Gaara perfectly comfortable with any silence at all.

According to the receptionist, the brothers Grim (1) were being kept in psych on the second floor, west wing. She found it fitting.

The pair had separate rooms, or cells in the lockdown area. Sakura was familiar with this ward, since she had spent a good deal of time here when she was apprenticing and still trying to understand Sasuke. She hadn't learned anything about Sasuke, but she knew every inch of the lockdown cells, including the bars, were padded.

'We should see Itachi too, just to find out how he's doing,' she said quietly as they came to the numbered, barred doors.

She went to the one labeled Uchiha, Itachi and looked at the guard. 'May I see Itachi san?' she asked. 'I'd like to see how he's doing if it's okay,'

'Of course, Medic Haruno sama,' the guard replied. 'I will call another guard to watch the door and go in with you.'

'You don't need to,' the red haired man at her side offered coldly, giving the impression of being covered in deep shadow despite the glinting of his bright red hair in the lights. 'I will take care of her.'

'Yes, Kazekage sama,' the guard agreed. 'She could have no better guard.' His eyes widened a little as Gaara offered a tiny grin and he unlocked the door.

'Itachi san, you have guests.' The guard called. 'If there's any trouble, yell, or knock on the door and I'll let you out.' He whispered to them.

'Yes sir,' Sakura agreed. She peered into the cell, finding it mostly dark save for the fading light of the sun as it set on the opposite side of the building. Wan light indeed.

'Itachi?' she said softly. 'Uchiha Itachi? How are you feeling?'

A lump in the corner turned to face them and the light that came through the tiny window in the cell door made his eyes glint evilly. 'Huhn?'

'Itachi?' she asked again.

'Yes. What do you want?' he replied coolly after clearing his throat.

'I just came to see how you are.'

'I don't know you. Either of you, so why are you here?' he asked, sitting up taller against the wall.

'I was friends with Sasuke many years ago,' she told him.

'Aah, then you're another sent to mess with my head?' he asked, blinking against the light.

'No, just visiting.' Gaara said.

'Who are you?' Itachi asked again.

'Haruno Sakura and Sabaku no Gaara,' she replied.

'Aah, what have I done to deserve the Kazekage and the mednin second only to Tsunade sama visiting me?' he asked.

'We just want to know how you're doing.' She said softly.

'I'm alright, thank you. They keep me drugged quite heavily, and even I can't counter the cocktail they put me on, although it doesn't matter right now.' He replied. 'I'm mellow, like they want, and I'm participating in the therapy since they killed the rest of the Akatsuki.'

'Are you now?' Gaara asked. 'Participating, that is.'

'For the most part. I really don't care anymore. I can get stronger here as well as anywhere. Besides, I can't practice in a padded room very well.' He laughed.

'I'm glad you're well, Itachi san. Would you mind if we visit again? We're not in Konoha often, but if you don't mind, I'd like it,' Sakura said, smiling softly at Itachi.

'If you wish. I don't get many visitors, and I'm not allowed books yet.' He said to her.

'That would drive me to spar with the walls,' Sakura joked. 'I'll see if we can get you some books, okay?'

He nodded and his head drooped to rest near his chest. 'Tired. All the drugs,' he muttered a tone of mild anger in his voice. (2)

'Be well, Itachi.' She said as she went to the door to be let out. She hadn't realized how much the room smelled like must until she was out in the clear air of the hallway.

'Can he get some books or something?' Sakura asked. 'He's bored to tears, and that's enough to make anyone a little battier than they were.'

'He's scheduled for review in the morning, and they'll decide on privileges then,' the guard replied. 'But I'll tell the doctor that you suggested it. The medication seems to be helping a lot,'

'It does.' She replied. 'He's nothing like the Itachi I've heard about.'

'He's nothing like the Itachi that came in, either.' The guard replied. 'Now you want to see the little brother?'

'Yes please.' She smiled.

The guard opened the second door, and flicked a light panel nearby, which she figured turned the lights in the cells on. It was getting dark, and the small bulb gave the room a little bit of light.

'Sasuke kun,' she said, looking at the form that lay carelessly sprawled on the floor, arms and legs splayed.

'Nngh?' he said, a moment of déjà vu, and she smirked.

'Uchiha Sasuke,' she said, 'Tsunade san told me that you're resisting your medication. Why is that?'

He snapped his head around to look at her, and took in her red haired shadow as well. 'Sakura,' he breathed.

'Yes, Sasuke.' She smiled softly at him, and she didn't know why.

'I've missed you.'

'And I you, but you need to take your medicine,' she chastised gently.

'Where were you?'

'Gone. I was in the bingo books as missing nin. Why?'

'Because I looked.' He frowned.

Sakura nodded, and frowned. 'So tell me what the doctors have found out about the Uchiha blood.' She cocked her head, and Gaara sat in the corner quietly, meditating.

'They found that all the inbreeding that was done a few generations ago to improve the power of the Sharingan and lower the age the bloodline limit showed up did more damage than good.' He said, absently chewing on a nail. His hair was disheveled, and looked like it hadn't seen gel or hair glue in weeks. Sakura almost wanted to cry, they were depriving him of his hair product.

How cruel. 'But we've figured out that if we keep some clean blood in the line, and try not to inbreed anything closer than fifth cousins, we can keep the Sharingan strong without the mental instability that comes with inbred blood. But that's only every second or third generation, the others, we have to breed with outsiders to keep the gene pool fresh.'

'They've kept you quite up to date, haven't they?' she asked, amused.

'I don't take my pills, but I cooperate for the counseling. They humor me sometimes.' He smirked. 'Sakura chan,'

'What do you need, Sasuke?' she asked.

'You care for me, or you used to. I need to rebuild the clan,' he told her.

'And that means you get to go out and have a dozen children with someone. Maybe a Hyuuga, since their bloodline limit might combine well with the Uchiha one.' She smirked. 'Hanabi is quite the rage among the young men, and she's special jounin.'

'Sakura,' he said, warningly.

'No. I won't have babies with you,' she snorted. 'I don't even know if I can anymore –wait' she frowned. 'Shit.'

Sasuke noticed the red haired boy that had tried to kill him when he was twelve was smirking triumphantly, and made some assumptions. He never forgot a face that had tried to kill him, but the intent to kill from this one was gone, so things could be left in the past.

'What Sakura?' Sasuke prodded.

'Gaara, we need to talk.' She said, and she heard the threat in her own voice as her stomach fluttered in terror.

'Let's go back to our suite,' he offered, taking her arm.

'Come back and let me know what happens.' Sasuke laughed.

'Take your meds, Sasuke. Trust me, they will help with some things, and they won't do anything to hurt you.' She called back as she was led to the door of the cell.

_Brothers Grim not to be confused with the brothers Grimm, writers of fairy tales, it ends up as a very bad pun. Sorry_.

_Just to let you all know, Itachi is still a bit weird, but he's on an industrial dose of drugs. In this story, he's on enough medication to knock a horse over, which is why he's all mellow and docile. _

I wish my muse would tell me what's going to happen next, because I don't think this will be over in three chapters. It's looking a good bit longer than that.

**Sabaku no Hime:** I had way too much trouble with this. I wrote six battle scenes, and then decided to get rid of most of it because it sucked. I warned you all that I can't write small battle. (ducks knives and kunai thrown at head) I'm so sorry this took so long. I've had the week from hell.

And in regards to Sakura just realizing that she might have a bun in the oven, well, I've actually seen smart, capable, independent women delude themselves for months, or until they get pregnant that an accidental pregnancy could never happen to them. It's a statistic for a reason. Most people aren't in the exempt percent, or that percent would be higher. Just use a rubber. Period.


	12. Trouble Brewing

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime:** alright, here we go with chapter 12. I have a day off, so I can do some updating. The fight scene gave me a week's worth of writer's block, but it's gone now for the most part, so let's see where we go this time, shall we?

**Disclaimer**: of course I own nothing but the decrepit old computer I write on, and a couple of pairs of ratty old jeans. Maybe some fun socks. I have care bears socks, they're too cute.

DE-LISH-CIOUS- cookies for faithful reviewer! And a new chapter…

IQ TestsSuck- continuing, and I'm not really sure, but prophylactics go back to ancient Egypt around 950 BC and were made up of some pretty funky stuff, like tortoise shell, leather, or the intestines of a sheep or an enemy in the case of ancient Romans. (Buzzle dot com. Or Google 'when was the first condom made' the article I read was by Nilesh Parekh 11/4/04)

**Chapter 12**

**Trouble Brewing**

When they got to the ambassadorial suite, Sakura nearly exploded. She'd been thinking about it the whole way back, and couldn't believe she'd been so stupid. They hadn't used protection.

Any time they'd been together.

Shitballs.

She wanted to explode at him, needed to explode at him, but there was no reason to. She didn't know what to say, and besides, it had taken both of them to be careless.

'You haven't used your chakra to check yet, have you?' he asked, more stating than asking.

'If you don't remember, it was blocked. Tsunade blocked it.' And then she realized that if she hadn't had some sort of fluke action going on with her _sozo saisei,_ Shikamaru would have been dead. Her chakra was blocked. _And it was still blocked._

'Well then, I'll be back with a test in a few minutes,' he told her, turning away from her as she sat on the thick white duvet.

'Can you get me a razor while you're at it?' She watched him nod, and lay down on the bed, arms pillowed behind her. She heard the brief moan of the wind as the window opened and shut in a matter of a second or so.

Shit.

Double shit.

The lights flickered and died, leaving Sakura to grope around blindly for a moment.

'Well, hell,' she let out a long suffering sigh. _What am I gonna do now? I don't know where the candles are, and my chakra is blocked._

_I guess all I can do is pretend to be, umm, not here, until Gaara gets back._ She relaxed back onto the bed, hoping that her eyes would adjust to the darkness soon, so that she could go check the door lock without falling flat on her face and being unable to fix her broken nose.

She allowed her head to turn to the side and looked out the window at the faintly glowing sky. The moonlight penetrated the darkness weakly at best, and she sighed, no help from there.

Shrugging, she closed her eyes, deciding to nap for a few minutes instead of worrying about a little power outage.

'Very good, Sakura chan. You showed your bloodline mutation.' A hissing voice offered from close to her head, jerking her awake.

'I thought you were dead, Orochimaru.' She replied, not allowing her voice to shake like it wanted to. She was alone with him again, and couldn't help the flashes of memory that flickered across her closed eyelids like a movie.

_Senbon._

_A kunai covered in her blood._

_A heavy boot that must have been reinforced with something crushing her bare foot._

She broke out in sweat as her body started to tremble. Sakura's eyes snapped open, knowing it wouldn't do any good, and knowing there was no way she could fight him with her chakra blocked off like it was.

'Yes, some of my animated corpses die far too easily,' he snickered, and she felt a cold, slimy appendage caress her cheek 'I can smell your fear, Sakura. I can taste it.'

'Nngh –' she managed as she realized that he was _licking _her face. _Gross._

'I'm glad your blood mutation finally showed up, Haruno,' he purred in her ear. 'I was starting to lose faith in you, especially after I paid such _intimate_ attention to you to bring it out.'

'What are you talking about?' she growled.

'Your child will be even better at it than you are.' He whispered in her ear. 'I can't decide if I should take you now, or come back for the baby,'

And then he was gone, as the breath caught in her throat, terror seemed to make her heart stop for the tiniest second, and he was gone.

The tiny whispering moan of wind was all that remained as the window squeaked almost inaudibly.

'I can smell your fear, Sakura,' came the voice from near the window. 'You need to tell me what happened.'

_Gaara._ 'It's you, oh thank kamis,' her voice broke on the last word.

'Tell me,' he said again as a candle lit near him.

'Orochimaru,' she offered as the buzzing sound of electricity filled the room and the lights flickered back to life.

'What did he do?'

'He said something about a bloodline mutation, and taking away my baby.' She whimpered.

'Oh.' Was all Gaara said, and she looked over to see his face, looking even more pale than usual.

He tossed something in a crackling plastic bag at her, and said softly as it landed on her stomach, 'Well then, we already know, but just for the record, go pee on a stick.'

Sakura shook her head, a chuckle escaping her throat at the sheer stupidity of what he'd said. She shrugged and stood up, taking the bag in her hand and walking towards the washroom quietly.

She stopped moving as she felt Gaara's warmth near her back. 'You are _not_ going to be present while I'm peeing.' She told him darkly.

'And would you prefer that someone else happened by?'

'I'll leave the door unlocked, but if I'm not screaming and you come in, I'm going to cause you a good deal of pain, and prevent you from having kids.' She growled.

'Fair enough.' He snorted just a bit, and she could almost see the smirk on his face.

A few minutes later, Sakura sat on the counter, watching as the test did its thing. She didn't want to think about the liquid that was slowly soaking its way up the test to the box where there would be one or two bars.

Her feet kicked gently at the cupboard doors at the bottom of the counter and she stared off into space, holding the test in one hand. What was she going to do if she was pregnant?

Strangely enough, the thought filled her with a giddy warmth instead of the cold fear she'd expected. _I want a baby,_ she thought to herself, realizing the truth of it. She might only be in her early twenties, but her mother had always told her that she'd know when she was ready. It was too early for most women, she knew that, since she was so young, but she wanted to have a baby.

Two blue lines showed up on the test as the liquid finished soaking the thing, and her hand went numb in shock. She watched blankly as the test dropped from her hand and hit the floor with a clatter.

The door burst inwards, Gaara frantically looking around for any threat, aqua gaze blazing with rage until he met Sakura's gaze.

She watched him look at her, and knew she had to be bright red or pale as the sheets, since her face felt funny. His gaze took in her blankly staring face, and moved down to her empty hands, then to the floor, where the test lay, forgotten and forlorn.

It was in his hand in less than a moment, and he was standing right in front of her, loose shirt touching her knees, so she stopped kicking the cupboards.

'So,' he said as he looked at the test.

'Huh,' she responded.

'It's real then?'

'Yeah.'

'What do you want, then?' he asked.

'Wha?'

'Tell me what you want to do,' he clarified. 'I'll tell you in a minute what I'd like to happen, but what do you want to do?'

She looked away from him, offering in a very small voice. 'I'm keeping it.'

'Good,' came the reply, and she chanced a look at his face, seeing no expression, and she wondered what he was thinking about.

'What are you thinking?' she asked softly, still rather frightened. It was such a huge thing, this, and she had never really thought about something like this happening before.

Of course, before him, she'd been a virgin, so the whole thought train had been moot then.

'I'm wondering when the wedding should be,' he replied deadpan.

'Umm,' she replied, trying to pull back a little. 'Try never?'

He snorted at that and met her gaze. 'I'm the Kazekage, Sakura,' he told her calmly. 'Even if no one but me cared about how many kids I had running around, I would.'

'So, that doesn't require anything like –'

'I say it does.' He told her flatly. 'That,' he said, voice becoming forceful as he put his hand on her belly 'Is as much mine as it is yours. I have equal say in what happens, and how the child is raised.'

'I'm surprised the child is still alive after that hit with the sword,' she mused.

'You think a _sozo saisei_ that healed other people wouldn't heal what's in your own body?' he scoffed.

'Point,' she agreed.

'You can have as much time as you need to get used to the idea,' he told her. 'But I really think that's a step we need to take.'

'Why? We don't have anything but sex.'

'You think so?' he scoffed again.

She remained silent, pushing past him to go sit on the bed, hands in her lap, pensive.

'You know, there's probably a law in at least one of our countries about an unwed Kage getting someone pregnant,' he offered.

'So you're going to force the issue?'

'I could, probably.' He replied, sitting next to her. 'I won't. Everyone in Suna and Konoha is likely already aware of what's going on, so there's no need. But we do need to explore the bloodline mutation that Orochimaru mentioned; especially if it's something our kids are going to have to deal with.'

'Kids?' she frowned.

'Just leave it. We're having one, what's to say we won't have more?' he grinned at her evilly. 'You still want me.'

'So, I probably won't after going through labor,' she frowned.

'And who do you think will be holding your hand, and letting you likely break his a few times while you have the baby?'

Sakura sighed. 'I just can't win at this one, can I?'

'Not likely,' he agreed.

'Can we just sleep? We can let it lie until tomorrow,' she offered.

'Sleep? Soon,' he agreed, moving in to trace her lips with his finger in a soft, worshipping gesture. 'But not yet,'

It occurred to her, as he was making love to her as if they had all the time in the world, that this was the first time they'd really shared sleeping quarters deliberately. He'd slept over at her place once before their return, and it had probably happened a time or two while they were back, but it was different this time.

Tsunade had given him the double, expecting him to have a guest.

Meaning her.

The Hokage's office was too full of paperwork and books to hold any sort of meeting in, so they'd retired to the hall and locked the tower for the few hours.

'Gaara san, did you get the report from the sand mednin?' Tsunade asked as she frowned away a question from Genma.

Sakura realized that some of the older jounin there were really starting to get old. Tsunade herself had to be near sixty now, Kakashi and Genma nearing forty. She had no idea how old Asuma and Kurenai were, but they had to be a few years younger than Kakashi. The only young jounin were Naruto, Hinata and Ino, aside from herself and Gaara; and the only reason the other three were there was because they represented groups.

Hinata was special jounin, and an expert on bloodline limits, having her own, as well as the breeding thing. Naruto was… Naruto. He was almost the Hokage's son, and she'd already made it clear that he was next in line. Ino was representative of the hunter nin; ANBU, as she was already a captain in her own right. She was also somewhat an apprentice to Morino Ibiki, and fairly well versed in psychology since the actual doctors were busy with their patients.

'Yes, I got their reports, Hokage san,' he replied. 'Things seem to be going well with the mednin exchange, although I'd eventually like to include other countries in it. Especially since mednin are like doctors and sworn to heal anyone who comes under their care, friend or foe.'

'Very good, Kazekage san,' Tsunade replied. 'Shizune, can you record that for exploration in the future?'

'Yes, Hokage sama,' she replied, pushing her long brown hair out of her face.

'Are there any problems with the mednin exchange?' Tsunade asked, looking around the group sitting comfortably on floor pillows. She was met with silence, and dim smiles, and Sakura was glad that the others agreed that it was a great idea.

'Next then, will be the odd happenings around Konoha lately,' Tsunade said. 'Does anyone have anything to input that wasn't covered in the last meeting?'

'I'd like to put forward that the power outage that covered most of the hidden village for forty five minutes last night wasn't a normal happening,' Kakashi said. 'I spoke to the supervisor at the power mill, and she said that nothing odd had happened there. The city should have been fully powered.'

'Did anyone report any suspicious activity during the outage?' Genma asked Kakashi.

'I ran into Orochimaru, and he said the thing we'd killed the other day was just an animated corpse.' Sakura put forward.

'Really? And did he try to hurt you this time?' Kurenai asked, concerned.

'No, he just mentioned something about a bloodline mutation,' she answered.

'Is it possible that he was just in the area taking advantage of an odd power outage?' Asuma asked.

'I doubt it,' Gaara said. 'Although I don't think he could have done it on his own. He must have had help.'

'True, since the ambassador's quarters are almost impossible to get into. Did he come through the window?' Genma asked.

'No,' Sakura replied. 'But he's not acting like himself, either.'

'She's right,' Gaara offered.

'He s-s-sounds like h-he's working with some-o-one else,' Hinata offered with almost no stutter.

'Under the control of someone else, you mean,' Ino said darkly.

'But who?' Naruto asked. 'Who would have the kind of payment Orochimaru would want? He wants jutsus and new bodies, not ryu,'

'Good p-point, Naruto kun,' Hinata agreed. 'S-so all we h-have to do is f-find out who it is that h-has bodies and j-jutsus to sp-spare.'

'It would have to be a very powerful person, with very powerful jutsus, or else Orochimaru would just find a way to steal them,' Ino said.

'True, but who's to say he's not working on that while appearing to help the person he's stealing from?' Kakashi offered them.

Sakura frowned. Who had massively powerful jutsus and some bodies to spare?

'It sounds like one of the Kages, save for the fact that none of them would part with one of their people willingly.' Kurenai stated darkly.

'Kurenai,' Ino gasped. 'You're a genius.'

'So I'm told,' she agreed sarcastically.

'A Kage then? Sakura asked, fear trickling down the core of her stomach, and she tried to ignore it so it didn't upset the baby.

'Possibly.' Naruto said. 'It's a good place to start. If not a Kage, then someone close to them, since the Kages can handle a lot of power, maybe he wants one of their bodies?'

'Good. Naruto, send jounin with a genin team to meet with each of the Kages, even of the small villages.'

'Why genin?' Sakura asked. 'You're just giving the mednin more dead bodies to work with.'

'The Kages will see a jounin with students as less of a threat than an envoy, and if it's someone close to a Kage, they won't worry about what they do in the presence of genin, since genin are supposedly weak.' Tsunade chuckled. 'But Sasuke and Naruto are prime examples of genin that have the power and capability of jounin when they were young. We'll just get more of them on duty to the other villages.'

'Good,' Asuma said, and Sakura felt a pang that she wasn't one of the powerful genin when she was young.

It still bothered her, though she'd more than made up for it since she'd become jounin.

'Next item of business is the Itachi and Sasuke problem. Tabled.' Tsunade held her hands out. 'Ideas?'

'Did Sasuke take his medication last night?' Sakura asked quietly.

'Yes, he did.' Ino said. 'The pair of them are getting easier to deal with since they're medicating, but they're still dangerous if they miss a dose.'

'So then what use are they?' Asuma asked, gruffly.

'The bloodline limit is priceless,' Hinata offered strongly. 'And the lesson they've taught the other families with limits about inbreeding is more than priceless.' She defended.

'So we can keep them medicated and breed them out?' Kurenai asked, a glint of pain on her face.

'I won't let that happen,' Kakashi offered coldly. 'He might not be anymore, but Sasuke was under my protection. His brother falls under it by default. You will not do anything immoral to those boys.'

'They've suffered enough; what with the mental instability that's been with them both their whole lives.' Ino said softly. 'Can't we just keep them in the village and medicated, and let them live a shinobi life? They're both genius level.'

'Regardless, _Sharingan_ needs to see another generation. The Uchiha brothers must breed.' Tsunade said. 'So we keep them medicated. Then what?'

'Why don't we just let them go be nins and medicated? If we keep them nearby or on a team with a mind mednin, they should be alright. And if they're checked regularly for stability and cared for accordingly, things should work out. We'd have our two Uchiha back, they'd be useful nin again, and they'd be stabilized, and eventually breed.' Genma offered.

'But what if things aren't alright?' Tsunade worried. 'There is always a chance that they'll miss a dose of medication, or become immune to it. What then? What if Itachi sees something that just sets him off one day, and goes berserk?'

'Kill them then.' Genma said. 'Or neutralize them in another way. Neither of them are sannin. Just jounin level. One of us could take care of them, three of us versus one of them, there's no contest.'

'They're still genius.'

'That's fine. There are lots of genius jounin in Konoha. There are a few genius chuunin I'd wager would give Itachi or Sasuke a good go.' Genma offered neutrally.

'I-I'd like to forbid an Uchiha from b-breeding with a _byakugan_ user for a f-few generations.' Hinata said. 'My family has been breeding branch and main family a little for a few generations. I-I don't want to marry a cousin, and an Uchiha and a Hyuuga would be even worse than either alone.'

'Good point,' Tsunade said. 'So I'd like to put forth the future sixth Hokage as a suitor for the Hyuuga heiress.' She smiled gently.

Naruto blushed bright red, and Hinata all but fainted.

'Don't worry, I've spoken to Hisashi for you.' She chuckled. 'Now, go, all of you but Sakura.'

Slowly the room cleared, and Sakura remained sitting near Tsunade. She almost didn't notice that Gaara was still there until she heard the slight swish of sand in his gourd.

'Gaara? This is about Sakura, would you leave us?' Tsunade prodded gently.

'No.' he replied, crossing his arms.

Tsunade sighed, and Sakura, seeing that her little problem would soon become public, decided to interfere. 'It's okay, Tsunade sama.' Sakura said. 'We spend a lot of time together.'

Tsunade sighed in defeat. 'Can I at least expect a wedding soon?'

'Shut up-' Sakura ordered over her shoulder, knowing that Gaara had his mouth open to offer some smart ass remark.

Who would have thought that once-crazy, former demon container Gaara would have a sense of humor? Or a love of irony? Not her.

'I'd like to check you to make sure you're okay,' Tsunade said, reaching over to Sakura.

'No, it's okay Tsunade. I'm fine, I promise.' She said, backing away a little.

'Sakura,' Tsunade said, warningly. 'Don't fight me on this one.' And touched Sakura, her chakra worming its way through her.

'Shit, Tsunade sama, don't,' Sakura complained, looking back to see a cheerful grin on Gaara's face.

'Well, well, well,' Tsunade crowed. 'There's a bun in the oven, and it has Gaara's chakra mixed with yours.'

'You don't need to tell me that, Tsunade sama. Can you just unlock my chakra? Please?'

'Yes, but you need to tell me what happened in the forest. Your report was incomplete.' she ordered, smirking.

'You know, Gaara, there's a law in Konoha in regards to a single Kaze-' Gaara cut her off.

'I told you about that, Sakura.' He offered.

'You said you wouldn't push,' she frowned back at him.

'He might not, but I will.' Tsunade growled. 'No one gets my best apprentice pregnant and doesn't marry her.'

'But I don't want-'

'Should have thought about that first.' Tsunade said. 'But at least you got over the boy you were dating before coming back.'

'Nngh-' was all she could come out with.

'She was _dating_ somebody before she came back?' Gaara asked, smirking. 'What was he like?'

'She was all upset over having to leave him.' Tsunade shook her head sadly. 'It affected her performance since she hadn't had enough of him.'

'Oh, really?'

'Yes.' Tsunade said. 'You don't care that you're not her first boyfriend, do you? No you don't. If you did, you wouldn't be with her now.' She laughed.

'I _would_ be _awfully_ upset if I wasn't the first and only,' Gaara said, and Sakura felt her skin start to crawl with embarrassment. 'But I was the first, and I'm the only.'

Tsunade frowned, and Sakura lowered her head, shaking it in denial.

'I _am_ her boyfriend from before,' he said quietly.

'Good then,' Tsunade smiled. 'When can we expect the wedding?'

'As soon as we can get her there,' Gaara chuckled. 'She keeps on saying no to me, so if you can get her to agree, I'm there.'

'Umm, hello? I'm sitting right here,' Sakura said angrily.

'We know that dear, but you're not being very nice to your fiancé right now,' Tsunade said. 'So just talk when you're going to say yes.'

Sakura frowned in disgust. 'What about the bloodline mutation that Orochimaru was talking about?' she growled. 'There's nothing going on if my baby and I are dead.'

'If you go to the hospital, hit the archives and check your lineage. I think there will be something there, because I know the Haruno clan has some odd history, although no one but Haruno is allowed to see the family histories.'

'I checked them before, when I was interning,' she argued. 'There's nothing in there.'

'Not _those_ archives,' Tsunade said. 'Check the secret archives. It's more than just a medical history, although it will take a while to cross reference everything.'

'Oh.' Sakura replied, dumbfounded. 'Who do I talk to?'

'The director. He should be in today. Just walk by the secretary like you don't see her and she won't bother you.' Tsunade said.

'Okay,' Sakura started to walk out.

'Not without me.' Gaara grunted, materializing by her side in a bare moment.

**Sabaku no Hime:** that was a bit shorter than the last one, though still longer than usual. It felt like mostly filler to me, since Orochimaru is being an ass, and didn't want to do anything evil with a senbon this time. I still don't get the bloodline mutation thing. I wish my muse would explain it to me, since I'm confuzzled.

Again, this is just to apologize for not updating for almost a week or more, and the shabbiness of the battle in the last chapter. It might be filler, but I'm happy how I wrote it, and I realized that I can handle conversations with a bunch of people instead of the two or three I've been using up to now!

Luff. Hope you liked.


	13. Something Cliche This Way Comes

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime**: alright, we're at chapter 13 now. This was _supposed _to be the last chapter. No such luck. Hopefully not so much filler this chap; the filler last chapter was pretty important to answer some questions I had about the plotline, so we'll delve a little deeper and accomplish something this time.

I know who did it! My muse has finally told me who it was! Feel free to guess who Orochimaru is in cahoots with; cookies for those who guess right!

On with it now, since there's no reviews to respond to (I did just post last night, so there's only been like 50 hits on the last chapter)

**Chapter 13**

**Something Cliche this way Comes**

Sakura didn't know how long she was in the secret histories library in the sub basement of the Konoha hospital. It was cleverly hidden, since the door to the sub basement stairs were behind a door in the generator room; the generator serviced once per year. The narrow steps had led down to a steel door that had a few padlocks on it, which would be easily destroyed aside from the fact that there was something in the locks that absorbed chakra.

Figured.

The director, one Shinji Amare, led the pair of them down the stairs and pulled the keys out of her chest bindings.

'Let me know when you're done so that I can lock up. One of you stay by this door while the other is to come get me,' she ordered, still not fully convinced that she should let these two people into the most hidden archive in Konoha.

Especially since one of those going into the most hidden archive was from another country.

'Yes, Shinji san,' Sakura replied as the lights were turned on, revealing row upon row of shelves, all hidden behind smoked glass doors. The room was almost as large as the training field team 7 had used all those years ago. It was held up by pillars and short walls, since it was directly under the basement proper.

Shinji turned, walking off as she shut the door behind her.

'Well, where to begin?' Sakura wondered aloud, dim lighting bothering her eyes. At least; she found herself happy to notice; there was a sitting area with a few comfortable looking chairs and a few lamps.

She hoped the lamplight wouldn't damage any of the documents.

Down the central aisle she walked, looking for any kind of labeling.

She was completely out of luck.

The pair eventually found the case that held the Haruno archives and went searching through it, hoping to find some answers.

They came out of it with a family tree, and some small medical information. Apparently, the older Haruno were mostly healers, and their chakra had started to evolve with that. Adaptation and all that.

But that didn't tell Sakura or Gaara anything about a bloodline mutation that Orochimaru had spoken of.

'But what if the chakra adaptation that's in this is the mutation that he was talking about,' Gaara offered softly.

'But that's a chakra mutation, and has nothing to do with a bloodline.' Sakura responded.

'At the moment, it's all we've got.' He replied.

That didn't sit well.

After an exhausting search, it sat even worse, since it was the only thing they could find that had anything to do with mutation of any sort.

They left the hospital disgruntled.

Sakura wanted to go see Tsunade since they'd forgotten to unblock her chakra last night, and Gaara wanted to go see the sandnin, so, much to his dismay, they split up.

On her way to the training ground after seeing Tsunade, Sakura ran into a few of her old friends that she hadn't seen in a while, aside from Ino at the meeting earlier.

'Forehead,' Ino called. 'You're coming to train with us for a while.'

'Yeah, we haven't seen you in ages,' Tenten agreed.

Sakura shrugged, and went with them. The rest of the group consisted of Neji, Rock Lee, Hanabi and Shino. 'Where's Kiba?' she asked as she approached.

'Oh, he's off on some mission with his team of genin,' Ino offered, giving her a meaningful glance.

So the plan to start intelligence had gone into action already.

Tenten and Ino took her to the side, followed by Hanabi, who didn't want to be left all alone with the men. 'Sakura, spill, we've heard some rumors about you and Gaara.' Tenten pried none too gently.

'There isn't much to tell, but just don't hurt me too much when we're sparring,' she offered sheepishly.

'Not feeling well?' Hanabi asked, oblivious. 'There's been a flu going around and everyone in the Hyuuga complex has had it. You should have seen Neji; Hinata was trying to get him to stay in bed and rest, and he was all snotty and messy…'

Sakura started to laugh, thinking about a snot coated Neji trying to get out of bed with a runny nose and fever.

'I think I might have a touch of something in my stomach,' Sakura offered, and Ino, being Ino, glanced at her sharply.

'You shouldn't train when you're not well.' Ino said, doing some math in her head and coming up with three. 'I'm going to take you to my place, and we'll stuff you with some soup. I have a bento waiting if you feel up to it.'

'It's okay, Ino,'

'Sakura san is not well?' Rock Lee burst, unable to hold it in any longer, nor the fact that the men had slowly gravitated towards the women in the way that men do, slowly, so as to look like nothing was going on, but close enough to hear.

'I'm going to take care of her for a bit,' Ino said.

'Ino chan,' Rock Lee frowned, and Sakura noticed him blushing just a little.

_Was it possible? Rock Lee with Ino?_ That _would be unexpected,_ she mused to herself.

Ino just dragged Sakura off without so much as a by your leave. So typical. She'd eat Rock Lee alive; but he probably wouldn't mind too much by the way he'd looked at the blond kunoichi.

Sakura had filled Ino in on everything. It had been just like old times, before she'd had to leave, and they were best friends.

Sometimes, no matter how much time passes, a friendship can just pick up where it left off. Sakura felt grateful that she and Ino had such a relationship.

'I think I might have something that can get you some info on this bloodline thing that Orochimaru was talking about,' Ino offered with a flick of her blond hair, focusing her dark eyes on her friend. 'You know you want it, Forehead.'

'Ino pig,' she sighed in relief. 'Why is it that we're such good friends? We almost hated each other for so many years, and now, we're back like we were when we were six.'

'No Sasuke,' Ino grumbled

'He wasn't good enough for you anyway.' Sakura said softly.

'I think the Kazekage might be good enough for _you _though,' Ino countered.

'Well, I don't have much choice according to Tsunade.'

'Why worry?' Ino said as she led the pink haired girl out the door of her home. 'She's this way. And Gaara sama isn't like he was when we were young. For one thing, there's no more Shukaku, and from the looks of him, he's almost completely sane now.'

'Well, he is,' Sakura followed Ino around the twisting, twining alleys of central Konoha, where the homes were small and all atop businesses.

'And on top of that, the way he looks at you when you're not looking at him is priceless.' Ino finished. 'I never thought I'd see Sabaku no Gaara lovesick.'

'It's just sex,' Sakura protested, knowing that she was lying on some level.

'Sure. Anyway, we're here.' Ino stopped in front of a small home that had a small cat in the window. Its bright green eyes met Sakura and it whirled, disturbing sheer curtains and making them puff back as it went.

Ino knocked, but had barely finished when the door was opened softly by an elderly woman in a faded blue housedress. Her hair was poufy and white, looking like a soft cotton ball. Her face was seamed and weathered, she bore every day of her life in the lines of her face, but most of the lines dictated happiness in their placement.

'Yamanaka Ino,' the woman stated in a regal voice at odds with her appearance, and Sakura looked up into her milky eyes.

Eyes that didn't see her or Ino.

'Oba chan,' Ino replied softly.

'What are you doing here child?' Oba chan asked, leading them into a sitting room that was a tiny bit dusty and had the scent of lavender and powder all through it. The small cat from the window sat on the cushion at the side of a futon, evidently where the old woman liked to relax during the day. 'The flowers you brought are still very much alive, and your father just brought me a casserole yesterday.'

'Oba chan,' Ino said softly. 'I've brought someone to meet you. She has some questions that you might know the answer to.'

'No wonder Tiff was acting funny; she never gets nervous unless there's someone new around.' The older woman sat down on the futon with ease, and Sakura knew that every item in the house was placed with care, so the old woman knew where it was and wouldn't trip. 'Sit down, children, ask your questions and introduce me, Ino,' she ordered imperially, with a small hand gesture to indicate a few cushions.

'Oba chan, this is Haruno Sakura, whom I've known most of my life. Sakura chan, this is Oba chan,' Ino said.

'I'm not really her grandmother,' the lady offered. 'We're not related, but it's the best description. You can call me Oba chan as well, Haruno Sakura.'

'Thank you Oba chan.' Sakura glanced over at Ino, who was watching Oba chan with an affectionate pride.

'Ask your questions Haruno Sakura. You have the aura of someone who is very very busy.'

'I don't know where to start,' Sakura frowned.

'I'll start for you then,' Oba chan shook her head, making her puffy white hair flop around gracefully. 'When I was young, I was told about a group of nin, healers all of them; and all of them nomadic. They went around to different countries healing for several years, but then many of them wanted to settle down.

'Apparently this is when your grandfather married. You weren't told much about your grandmother, were you? I doubt it. She had no history in Konoha, since she was a nomad.

'But I was always told there was something odd about her. Something strange in the way she could heal. We never figured out exactly what it was, and I never really cared to, since she was a healer, and a good one, the villagers just let it lie.

'I remember one day, the pair of them, with a team of six genin, came home from a C rank mission. It had gone badly somehow, and in the report, there was something about how they had killed the enemy nin, but all of them were gravely injured. The eight of them came back without a scratch on them, only a few hours after the attack.

'The second Hokage didn't ask how they were all fine after such a short time, and no one wanted to tell him. The genin didn't remember, I read that in their reports, since I was one of the secretaries to the Hokage at the time, and things went back to normal. Nothing odd has come from Haruno since then, and I have heard no more.'

'She died before I was born,' Sakura mused.

'Of course she did. She died very young. I remember that much. She only had time to bear your grandfather one son before she passed on. That's your father.'

_But my father is dead. So is my mother._ Sakura didn't say it aloud.

'Thank you Oba chan,' Ino said softly. 'You've been a great help.'

'You're always welcome here. You too, Cherry Blossom,' Oba chan smiled softly as the pair said their goodbyes and petted the cat, Tiff.

Sakura made her way out of the clutches of Ino, promising to come chat soon, and tell her what it was like to be pregnant, since Ino had figured that was what she had a touch of in her stomach.

Then, Sakura went to visit the home of her family, wondering if it had sold to anyone, or what had been done to it. The neighbors' curtains twitched a little as the pink haired kunoichi made her way to the front door, finding the home unlived in.

She went in; finding everything the same except the electricity was off. No one had dealt with the house. She was sort of disappointed, hoping someone would have saved her the grief, especially after three years for god's sake.

There was a layer of dust over everything, and Sakura felt like she was entering a tomb.

She quickly made her way back out, locking the door after herself.

Shit. Just another thing to deal with.

She went back to the suite she was sharing with Gaara, brushed by him and made her way to the washroom, where she intended to soak in the tub for a while. She left the door open, hoping he'd make his way in and maybe keep her company, or even get in the tub with her.

He didn't disappoint. 'Did you find anything out?' He asked, shedding his clothing and lowering himself into the tub with her, cuddling up behind her and just holding her.

'Not really. Apparently there was something odd about my grandmother, but that's it. The lady that Ino took me to see was really nice.' She told him a bit about what had happened.

'If you want, we can try to trace this group of healer nin,' he offered. 'It wouldn't be too hard if we have the resources of Konoha and Suna both.'

'Okay,' Sakura conceded. It was so easy to just accept the help. Too easy in fact. It was also too easy to go on like she and Gaara cared about each other, like there was something going on besides sex and a baby.

'Wasn't so hard, was it?' he asked, as if he was following her train of thought.

She just shrugged and started draining the tub, turning on the water for a shower.

'We'll find out what's going on, and who's doing it,' he told her as the water started to spray down. 'And we'll find out what's up with your bloodline, and how it will affect the kids,'

Several days later, back in Suna, they'd done a fair bit of digging. Well, Sakura had, and Gaara had helped when he wasn't working. Temari had gone to a few towns in the Suna territory where the nomad healer nin had shown up a few generations ago.

They'd found some distressing news.

The whole group of healer nin were dead.

None of them had left behind any living offspring. She was the last.

There was nowhere to turn for information on her bloodline, or her ability, or who would possibly know about it or want it.

She was in shit.

'Who has something Orochimaru could want enough to play errand boy? Who is powerful and influential with family who has a long memory?' Sakura wondered out loud to Gaara as she sat in his office, helping him file paper. She'd been forbidden from the hospital since the flu that had gone through Konoha had made its way to Suna, and he refused to let her endanger the baby.

'We'll find out. As soon as the genin teams come back, we should have some answers,' he mused to her as he stamped some papers and piled them to the right side of his desk. 'Finished missions, invoice unpaid.' he told her, and she filed them properly for him.

She received notice a few weeks later that the Uchihas had been tried and found innocent due to insanity, ordered to remain in custody of healers until they were deemed stable enough to reintegrate into nin society.

Meaning, they could go on missions as long as their healer was with them.

Naturally, this information was handed to her by Sasuke himself, who was accompanied by a brown haired healer that she'd helped train several years back.

'Yuki chan,' Sakura smiled at the older woman.

'Sakura chan,' she grinned back, eyes crinkling under her glasses.

'Sasuke kun,' she hugged him. 'I'm glad for you. Are you taking your medication?'

'Yes,' he growled, not really hugging her back, but not pushing her away either.

'Good,' she whispered in his ear as Kankuro walked into the Kazekage's reception area.

'Gaara isn't going to like that too much,' he told her loudly, indicating the open door to Gaara's receptionist, and then his office.

'Meh,' Sakura dismissed. 'He knows Sasuke kun is my friend.' So she went back to hugging Sasuke tightly, as if they'd always been friends, and she didn't halfway hate him.

'I've heard there was a little bit of a reason you went missing nin, Sakura,' he said, pulling back and holding her arms by her side. 'I'm sorry that something like that happened. I'm sorry that you had to leave Konoha because of me.'

'It wasn't you,' she said, breezily. 'It was because of Itachi.' Then she frowned. 'For some reason, I don't think Itachi actually did it; he didn't seem to recognize me at the hospital when we visited.'

'Good thinking. About time you figured it out.' Gaara offered from behind her. 'Let my girlfriend go.' He told Sasuke in the if-you-don't-do-what-I-say-right-now-I'll-kill-you voice.

'Orochimaru?' Sakura asked softly. 'But then, does that mean that whoever it was was aware of things even then?'

'I don't know. Maybe.' Gaara replied.

Later that night, Sakura was sitting alone in her room in Temari's house. She'd decided that even if all of Suna knew she'd slept with their Kazekage, she wasn't going to be obvious about it.

So when the knock came at her window, she was dressed and ready to go with him for a while. She'd figured that no one would care if she went up to her room and came out of her room in the morning.

What she did in between times was her own business.

She opened the window, not looking to see who it was, 'Gaara, you know it's unlocked.' She said to him.

'It's not Gaara,' she heard the soft voice, a voice she'd heard in her dreams and nightmares so many times since she was twelve.

'Sasuke,' she whispered shakily.

'Yes, come with me for a bit Sakura.' He said, coming into her room when she made no move to shut him out. 'I want to talk to you about something.'

'You should be with Yuki chan,' Sakura told him as she followed him out the window. 'And Gaara is going to come to me soon,'

'Yuki chan,' Sasuke smiled regretfully.

'Is dead,' Orochimaru whispered in her ear.

'Let's go,' Sasuke said, sticking something into her side, and she felt light headed and weak. 'We can collect your payment on the way.'

'Of course we will,' Orochimaru replied, throwing the weakly struggling Sakura over his shoulder.

She tried to scream, really she did, but her voice wouldn't work. There was nothing coming out of her vocal cords at all, save for a wheezing breath or two from her lungs.

It was nearly two in the morning before Gaara made it to get Sakura. He ignored the sight of a struggle outside Temari's home as his family playing, wrestling most likely.

He felt nervous when he saw that her window was open.

Sabaku no Gaara's face changed when he found out that she wasn't in her room. Nothing of sanity was on his face, only mad, mad rage and boundless fury as he put together the fact that the signs of wrestling were below her window.

His eyes grew cold as he silently left the room.

**Sabaku no Hime** oh hell, what's going on here? Sasuke is paying Orochimaru for something? But there's something else going on as well, Gaara is freaking and there's something weird about Orochimaru.

What's going on???? We'll find out in the next chapter, which should be up in a few days. Let me know who you think is behind everything! Let me know if the plot is getting stupid (it was originally supposed to be funny, but it's turning into a mystery)


	14. Endless Rage

**Call Me When You're Sober**

**Sabaku no Hime:** I can't believe it's been so long. I have such a writer's block, so this will probably suck hugely, but the only way I can get rid of it is to write it out.

Shout outs: first off, Ishanatur, I don't think I said thank you before. So thank you. And everyone should go check out Broken and Broken 2. Isha's writing style evolves even as the characters do! Awesome! Check it out!

We have a DE-LISH-CIOUS and IQ TestsSuck, thanks for reviewing often, and giving me encouragement. I appreciate. .dark Alley and Harvest Moon Lover, thank you both again very much. Areshi, Gothic Saku-chan, Runlittlepiggy and Guinavera Malfoy, thank you for your kind encouragement. I'm sorry I've taken so long. I've had huge writer's block, and been working way too much.

On the bright side, I have confirmation for my prep courses, but that will take more time from my writing. I hope to be able to update a little more regularly.

Disclaimer…standard.

Listening to… Killswitch Engage, Cradle of Filth, APC, Tool and Slipknot

**Chapter 14. Endless Rage**

Sakura frowned as the anesthetic wore off. She was staring up at a dark ceiling in a dimly lit room. The damned poisoned senbon had ended up knocking her unconscious. Apparently it was a newer poison, one she hadn't run into yet, nor had time to develop a counter for. Her limbs slowly regained feeling, as she tried to move them. They hurt for a long time, the classic pins and needles sensation that immobilized limbs for a while when the nerves had been pinched.

Her eyes blinked slowly, and later, what seemed hours later, her eyes opened one final time, slowly, dangerously.

Sakura was angry now. Sasuke, that bastard. He'd betrayed her again. _Again_. She'd sworn to herself that she'd never be betrayed by one bearing the name of Uchiha again, but she'd been naïve, thinking that just because he was in custody that he wouldn't have something up his sleeve.

He'd probably helped the snake sannin with the power outage.

What an ass.

She slid slowly off the bed she lay on, limbs moving smoothly, committed to each movement, each second that she had her freedom.

She was going to hurt someone.

Badly.

Beeping monitors greeted her as she walked into the next room though the partially open door. The stench of old anesthetic and sanitizer hung heavily in the air. Antiseptic aged. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. As she walked past a bed that had a hole where someone's head should be.

She noted the spaghetti of wires sticking up from the hole, as if someone had just broken the connections and walked off.

Frowning, eyes growing wider in her rage, she decided that she'd avenge t his poor soul, the one who'd spent time here, with wires in his or her head, hooked to the machines and trying to survive Orochimaru's evil experiments.

She ripped loose a sturdy looking wire as a weapon, since her kunai and shuriken were long gone. It separated from the floor with a horrible rending noise, and she was glad she didn't have to pull a ten foot wire from the ground.

Walking on, her eyes set in fury; she tried to find her way out. It seemed that she was going in an ever larger square and up a few stairs now and again.

She ran into some lower level guards who were quickly disposed of.

Bloody, but quick.

She rather enjoyed the feeling of the blood of her enemy splashing her face, and she wondered if her baby was still alive.

She didn't check as she took kunai and shuriken from the bloody dead bodies that she left in her wake. They'd hurt her. They might have hurt her baby. They would all die.

She walked slowly down a long hall, edged in brick with a high ceiling.

'Orochimaru,' she screeched off into the shadows, hoping that he'd come out just so that she could kill him.

'You called?' came the sibilant reply a few minutes later, from the doorjamb, just through the door she was about to pass.

'Apparently I did,' she replied. 'Let me see you, snake teme,' she growled.

'Don't you mean Orochimaru sama?' he chuckled.

'No.'

'You called me, the least you could do is be civil until we fight, if we do.' He uncrossed his arms and shoved back his hair, letting her get the full effect of his slitted nostrils and yellow, slitted pupils.

'I'm going to kill you, and all of the living beings in this hideout,' she told him coldly.

'Why is that? I just did what I was paid to do. I get what I want, he gets what he wants. We all do fine,' Orochimaru told her.

'Who's this he that wants me, anyway?' she growled.

'Why are you speaking so cruelly to me?' he asked, mocking hurt.

'Because you drugged me.' she told him. 'And you took me from where I wanted to be.'

'Is that all?' he shrugged. 'Think of all the things I could have done to you while you were unconscious. I did none of those things. Think of all the things I could have done when you woke up. I did none of those things, either.

'I don't deserve your contempt. I am just fulfilling my part of the bargain.'

'Who's got the other side of it then, Orochimaru san?' she asked politely.

'Unfortunately, Haruno san, I cannot tell you. But I can lead you to him.' He told her, gently taking her elbow.

_He has a very odd respect for manners and custom,_ she noted to herself. _I wonder if I can't use that at some point._ She wondered to herself, filing it away for future reference.

'Would you be so kind as to indulge me by telling me why this person wants me?' she asked, politely, following his surprisingly gentle lead.

'I may do this, as it doesn't break contract.' He replied. 'I paid such attentions to you to find out whether or not you had the bloodline mutation of the traveling mednin. You do. I was to get a new body, one I have wanted for many years, only more powerful if I got you to reveal it and bring you in to him.'

'Who would the owner of this body be?' she asked him, squeezing his hand lightly in a manner of close friends.

'You will see,' he replied, squeezing her hand a little harder than was strictly necessary.

'Why am I here?'

'To breed, haven't you figured that out yet?'

'What do you mean?'

'He will tell you. I have a body to move into shortly.' Orochimaru told her as he led her down another long hallway that led to a closed door, light escaping at the bottom.

They walked through the door, meeting a deskbound Kabuto as he looked up from his computer screens. 'Very good. You're here.'

'What do you want?' she growled at him.

'The baby,' Kabuto told her, smiling grimly and shifting his glasses.

'Why,' Sakura roared. 'You can't have it.'

'Yes we can. It's all for the greater good.' Kabuto told her. 'If we get a child of you and Sabaku no Gaara, and a child of the Uchiha and Byakugan, and then breed them, creating a clan, we'll have the ultimate container for Orochimaru sama,' he went on.

Sakura just glared at him.

'Are you stupid?' she asked loudly as Orochimaru left the room.

'Excuse me?' he replied.

'I said, are you stupid? Baka baka no baka?' she asked again. 'Whatever makes you think that I'd sit idly by and let you do something like that?'

'Why, no,' Kabuto replied with a small sneer as he stood up gracefully, in that liquid, boneless way he had. 'Much more than that is expected of you.'

She snorted. 'So it's _you_ then, behind all this? How do you know of this bloodline mutation then?' she asked.

'In a sense, I'm behind nothing at all,' he replied, standing before her. 'And the only reason I know of such a thing,' he smirked, 'I as well, am a child of the nomadic medics.'

She snorted. 'Liar.'

He shrugged. 'Whatever you decide. I know about it, and that's all there is to it.'

She dove for him, thrashing her kunai towards his face, expecting his duck. 'I'll kill you,' she screeched, lunging towards him again, not expecting the parry he offered, taken off balance by it. Sakura skidded over the desk, rolling off it in a swift recovery and crouched by it, breathing hard.

She had to be careful. The baby in her belly needed to be taken care of.

But she had to get out of here.

'It's useless, Haruno san,' he told her. 'And pointless. Neither of us will fight at full capacity, since you want to make sure the child lives, and I want that as well. Why not just stay here, and not fight? We will make sure the child is well taken care of.'

She shook her head imperceptibly and leapt over the desk towards him, only to find a kunai at her throat.

'You're not good enough, Sakura,' he told her. 'You may have reached jounin status, but you're not good enough to go one on one with me.'

'Betcha I am,' she growled at him, relaxing into him just a little. The kunai loosed a bit against her throat as he was taken by surprise.

Sakura frowned to herself, and formed a small sac of chakra around her belly. Hopefully that would prevent any damage to the baby while she got serious.

'What makes you think that, kunoichi?' he asked softly, a startled grunt escaping him as she ground herself into his front.

Sakura tried very hard not to puke, she really did. It was like grinding a slimy… something. She couldn't compare it to anything, since it was just… bad.

His body was slim and lithe, and if his personality wasn't so horrible, she'd possibly find him attractive, especially due to the white hair.

She thought it would be wise to work on that for a moment; so she ground into him harder, and made a little sound from the back of her throat.

Gaara, it's Gaara, and not someone like Kabuto…

She told herself that as the kunai loosed a little more, and then enjoyed the fact that even someone as sexless as Kabuto could be led around by his hormones if it was done right.

'So, he wasn't enough for you then?' he rasped in her ear.

She made a noncommittal sound and turned against him, or tried to.

'No, little girl,' he told her. 'You might want it, but I still don't trust you. Facedown on the desk.' He ordered.

Sakura almost growled at him. What a sick bastard. Was he scared she would bite him or something?

Wait, she _would_ bite him given half a chance. So maybe he wasn't as sick and twisted as she thought. Shrugging mentally, she made her way over to the desk and shimmied a little, hiding her disgusted expression as she gripped the edge of the desk and prepared for something awful.

A slight chuckle came from behind her, and she looked over at him. He was pulling his hair out of its binding very, very slowly as he walked towards her.

Sakura offered a seductive smile and shifted her grip on the desk.

Kabuto didn't bother removing his glasses or shirt, his hands went straight to his pants, and Sakura tensed.

Now was her moment, she thought to herself triumphantly, smirking as she strained her arms a little with a grunt and hurled the desk at Kabuto's head.

A sharp cry escaped him, but she didn't stick around to see if she'd done him any damage. She ran. As quickly as she could, she sprinted, channeling chakra into her legs and feet that she might have a bit more speed.

'Cock block!' she yelled back at him childishly, relishing her small victory.

Now, if only she could find her way out. That would make things just _that_ much better.

She gauged her chakra reserves, and decided that she could safely break down a few walls to make her own escape route if she had to, but the safety net around her belly was draining her a bit.

She could either be sure she could break down every wall on her way out, or she could hope she had enough and protect the baby. There wasn't really much of a choice there, she mused to herself as she approached a wall and turned to the left, following the hallway.

She didn't want to lose the baby.

She didn't want to deal with all the crap Gaara was sure to throw at her when she got back, but she didn't want to lose the baby. That would nearly kill her.

A few minutes later, hopelessly lost, she stopped for a breather, noticing a few grains of sand at her feet.

Gaara had found her.

'Not too bad,' she told the sand as more started to whirl in through cracks in the walls. 'You were almost on time this time.' She offered without malice.

'Come _on_,' he rasped at her as he came around a corner with a slender, tall man with the Uchiha dark looks behind him. 'I found Itachi, and Sasuke's very, very hurt. Let's go.'

'Good, you have Sasuke as well?' she asked, following Gaara a few steps behind, ready to catch Itachi if he fell like he looked as he was about to.

'Sasuke was guarding Itachi,' Gaara offered. 'I couldn't… he's… it's…'

'Not your fault,' Sakura replied softly, letting the pounding of their feet be the only sound aside from harsh breathing for a few moments.

They were passing some downed bodies, but they all looked alive, she noted. There was breathing, and some of the bodies appeared to be waking up.

'You didn't kill anyone?' she asked in astonishment.

'No.' he replied calmly, hefting Itachi over his shoulder since the man was struggling, starting to fall over. 'I would have, though.'

Sakura wondered if he would have killed Sasuke over what he'd done, or who he had been to her. Then she realized that it didn't matter. There was no way that Sasuke could be allowed to get away with the things he'd done. For what he'd done to her, she could forgive. What he'd done to his brother and other friends was hard to forgive. What he would have done to her baby…

'He might have to die,' she mused. He might not be insane, just utterly consumed by his desire for revenge, and his desire for power. He would have done things to her baby.

Unacceptable.

Sakura ended up blasting through a few walls just for spite on the way out, and smirked at the damage she'd caused as they made for the forest to recuperate for a few hours.

They'd decided to run for Konoha since it was closer.

Itachi seemed to be waking up a few hours after they'd gotten out and set out for Konoha. He didn't seem like he was going to go ballistic, but he was looking a little more _aware_ than he'd seemed in the hospital.

She really hoped there wasn't another problem they'd have to deal with soon.

They pretty much ran to the Hokage tower as soon as they were through the fortified gates. Sakura made a quick report to the Hokage, and Itachi was returned to the hospital to be kept under surveillance. He hadn't been medicated in several days, and they were worried about what might happen, but they were also interested, just in case a lowered dosage could be called for.

They finally got to the ambassador suite, and Sakura frowned softly as she walked over to the bed.

'Gaara, I don't know… what it is that's going on. I don't think it's just Kabuto behind it though.'

'Hn,' he returned. She hated that sound. That sound meant that there was something else on his mind. He'd used that sound a lot when Shukaku was still ascendant, but she wasn't sure what it was now.

'He said something about the ultimate container for Orochimaru, our baby with a Sharingan and a Byakugan user's talents as well.'

'But who would he use in the meantime?'

'One of the Uchiha, of course,' Gaara told her quietly. 'He would use an Uchiha, since he had them both; use the other for breeding to make his own clan of bodies he could steal.'

'But… Orochimaru doesn't seem the type to go through that much work for another body. He just steals people when he wants their bodies.'

'Good.' Gaara replied. 'He's not the root, but I wonder how Itachi fits into this.' He mused aloud. 'I don't think he's unwitting.'

'Hn,' she offered.

'I need to talk to Tsunade san for a bit,' he told her. 'Come to the Hokage tower in one hour. You'll be needed. We leave for Suna in the morning.'

She used her time for personal ablutions, glad of the shower and having a razor…at_ last_. When the allotted span of time was up, she made her way quickly to Tsunade's tower, knocking on the door.

'Come in, Sakura chan,' Tsunade's voice rang out.

She went in slowly, enjoying the barely audible creak of the door as it opened, then closed in her wake.

Tsunade and another nin stood by her desk, Gaara closer to her, in front of the desk, standing quietly, face unreadable as usual.

'You told me to come?' she asked Gaara quietly, not sure of the situation.

He glanced into her eyes, aqua and emerald clinging for the briefest moment, before he looked down to something he had in his hand. It glinted silently, ominously at her, as if it was laughing at her.

Shit. He wasn't going to…?

'Sakura,' he said softly as he looked up into her eyes, getting down on one knee. She frowned. The Kazekage shouldn't kneel; it just didn't work for him.

'Stop kneeling, Gaara san,' she hissed, blushing as Tsunade smirked and the nin she didn't recognize clasped his hands together gleefully.

'You'll marry me,' he said, not a question, but assuming she would say yes.

Her stomach dropped, and she could feel her toes growling with want for a good chocolate feast. Shit. He did. He had the _guts_ to do something like that, as if it was just a natural progression.

And all of a sudden, it didn't matter anymore. She took a deep breath, and sighed it out. It was just Gaara after all. He wouldn't do anything bad to her, and besides, the sex was amazing. He was just doing this for the sake of his title, so the villagers didn't think the Kazekage was some kind of crazy, amoral man slut.

They could break it off after a suitable amount of time, when his villagers realized that he wasn't some kind of perverted man slut, doing anything with boobs. An engagement was probably the only thing that would cement his position in Suna for a while, especially after the citizens found out she was pregnant.

'Sure,' she shrugged, and heard three expelled breaths in unison. 'Whatever. Can we go now? I'm kinda tired.'

'No, we can't. Not yet.' He told her quickly. 'In a few minutes.' He turned towards the desk where Tsunade and the nin stood.

She shrugged and sat down on one of the chairs that had finally had the mission scrolls cleared off them.

'Alright then, Kazekage sama, Haruno san,' the unknown nin began. 'If you will both stand, facing each other and repeat after me…' he moved towards the front of the desk, holding a book in his hands.

'What the hell?' she exclaimed. 'What do you mean?'

'The wedding, Sakura chan,' Tsunade said softly. 'You did agree, after all.'

'But… but… flowers? Dress? Bridesmaids and maid of Honor? Free bar? Shoes?' she squeaked incoherently.

'Later, Sakura,' Gaara told her. 'We need to do this now.'

'But?'

'Do you trust me to keep you safe?' he asked quietly.

'Not anymore…' she frowned, backing away, arm before her chest in a defensive posture. Hurt flashed across Gaara's face, then anger glowed in his eyes as he advanced towards her.

'After everything that's happened…' he stepped towards her, and she countered by taking a step back. 'After all that we've been through together.

'After you chose me out of thousands of people you've met to be with, and after I found you again when we got here… after all we've meant to each other…' he stepped forward again, and Sakura, getting angry, stepped up to his face.

'After what we've meant to each other?' she frowned angrily. 'All we've meant to each other is sex,' she reminded him.

'You think so?' he glowered down at her. 'Liar.

'And after you decided that you want to keep the baby- the one that I helped make… and now you say _no_ to me?' he growled.

She faced him, undaunted. He was just making this crap up. She was keeping the baby because _she_ wanted it. Not for him. They hadn't meant anything to each other… not before returning to their hidden villages, nor after. Why should he do this _now?_ An engagement was all well and good, but a marriage would be a pain in the arse to dissolve.

'I'm saying no to the wedding, Gaara.' She told him, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him. 'No.'

'Damn you,' he said almost good-naturedly. Something flashed in his eyes, and was gone in the briefest moment.

She turned to leave.

'_Damn you!_' he hissed after her as the door creaked shut. _'Why won't you just love me?'_ he offered brokenly to the closed door. He turned to the two nin behind him, wrath making the sand leak from his gourd and swirl around the room.

'Don't leave yet.' He told them both. 'We'll be back in a few.' He leapt from the window, leaving a tiny droplet of saline water on the sill.

'Shit,' Tsunade offered to her old friend. 'Why can't she just say yes?'

**Sabaku no Hime** are you all ready to kill me yet? I'm so sorry I haven't written in so long. I've been utterly dry. I still am, since I hate this chapter, but it's coming out. It's just really slow. Damn that writer's block.

The chapters should be a little easier to pull out from now on, although it might be up to a week between updates, due to the fact that my work has me doing evening/morning/evening/morning all week. I am so sorry for the lack of updates. It's been… well, you know.

Anyways, if anyone decides to read this chapter, please forgive me. Also, go check Ishanatur's fiction. She's great. Also, see King of the Poker Face. He's got a Naruto fic up, and a couple from Zelda. (tytyty to KotPF, you really helped me through the block. Now maybe I can work another chapter of the things he missed!!!)


	15. The End of the Old Life

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

**Disclaimer…**yet again. I don't own it, never will. I just play with characters when I'm too lazy to make up my own.

**Sorry for the long hiatus. I won't belabor the point. This chapter has been written because of a PM I received from Goatis, reminding me that I still haven't finished this story.**

**Thank you to all of you who have left kind reviews, even when I hadn't updated for nearly a year.**

The End of the Other Life

Sakura had gone back to the suite that she and Gaara shared, and simply sat down. She'd realized that this probably wasn't the best option, as he could and most likely would come in at any second. She just wanted a few minutes to sit and think about things.

Well, maybe she needed more than a few minutes, she decided to herself. A few days would be better, time enough to stop reacting to things and actually think them through.

"I know," she muttered to herself quietly, "that we aren't really ever destined to have enough time to absorb everything that happens as a nin, but jeez," she ended rather louder than she'd started, allowing her frustration to come out.

"Is a day or two too much to ask?" she continued aloud, staring at the ceiling as she splayed back onto the bed.

"It depends on whether or not you end up hurt in a day or two," Gaara offered from the windowsill. "I'd have figured you for locking that one," he went on. "After your visitor the other night,"

"Meh," she replied. "He's not like to try the same thing twice. He probably also has his hands full dealing with what you did to Sasuke."

Gaara frowned at her dull, lifeless tone. That wasn't like her, the Sakura he knew. She was a fighter, not someone to ever give up and take things with the enduring face. "Is it because of what happened at Tsunade's tower?" he asked, already knowing the answer. He wasn't even sure why he'd bothered to ask, except for the burning desire to be affirmed or even absolved of guilt for something, anything at all. He knew she wouldn't. It was pretty much all his fault, the turbulence between them; it didn't make him happy, but he'd admitted to himself his needs.

He'd just hoped that his needs and what she wanted had been a little more in line with each other.

"Partly," she replied. "Mostly it's just all the crap that's happened that I haven't had time to take care of."

"I'm sorry," he looked right at her as he came into the room, sliding off the window frame with customary lithe grace.

"It's not really your fault," she replied, turning onto her stomach. "I'm just a little…overwhelmed."

Gaara moved closer, to lay on the bed perpendicular to her body, resting his head on her back. "It's been a bit much, hasn't it?" he sympathized, glad that this was one of the skills he'd learned in the world outside Japan and hidden villages.

"Yes" she replied with a soft sigh. "Yes, it has, far too much for me to deal with," She'd never been one to wallow in self pity, she thought to herself, and damned if she was going to start now. "I just need a bit of time to think before making any decisions."

"I understand," Gaara told her quietly. "But regardless, there are some things that have to be dealt with now."

"Why can't it wait for a while until we've got all the garbage around Orochimaru and the brothers Uchiha taken care of?" she mused aloud.

"I know you," he told her, reaching around to rub the side of her leg in a comforting manner. "If we wait now, when all of this is taken care of, you'll find another excuse, and then another."

"Did it ever occur to you that that might just be because I don't want to do…that?" she trailed off, not wanting to actually say the word.

"Yes," he replied calmly. "It has."

She remained silent for a minute, just thinking.

"Come on," he nudged the side of her leg as if to move her. "Let's get this over with so we can take care of the rest."

Her only response was a deep, disappointed sigh. "Tsunade is likely getting drunker every minute we stay here," he offered with a grin in his voice.

She sighed again. "I know you don't want to," he sighed back at her. "But are you going to jeopardize my position as the Kazekage just because you don't want to get married?" he asked her quietly. "I think I'm doing an okay job of it; better than any of the other candidates in line after I'm gone."

She arched her back and turned to look at him. "You can lose your posting?" she asked incredulously. At his nod, a pensive look crossed her face. "Why?" she asked.

"Apparently it's one of the older laws, but no one's ever overturned it," he offered with a shrug. "I wasn't intending on being the one to do so. And since this happened before, even if I were to have it thrown out, it still applies to us."

Sakura allowed herself to fall flat on the bed; her voice was muffled when she spoke due to the fluffy duvet. "You're shitting me," which sounded a lot like "Yo thittin ee"

"I am not," he replied.

"Well for fuck sake," she lifted her head up before speaking. Gaara made a questioning noise at her, turning on his side so that he was looking at her shoulder from beneath and behind.

"Fine," she sighed gustily. "Let's go." _I really don't want him to lose his posting, _she thought to herself._ I guess I can't be selfish here. I've been selfish enough when it comes to him, haven't I?_

Gaara said nothing, but got up off her side and helped her up, practically dragging her to the door.

The only words he spoke to her the whole time was a simple "Watch the stairs" as they were entering Hokage tower. Briefly, she wondered what was on his mind. He might not want this any more than she did for all she knew. He might have wanted to keep things just the way they were too.

The ceremony- if it could be called that- was a blur in Sakura's mind. She replied to the Hokage's questions as if on auto pilot, her mind was floating elsewhere. During a brief moment of lucidity, she wondered if this wasn't a bad thing on her 'wedding' day, being unable to concentrate and light-headed.

She came too when Gaara grasped her hand in both of his and placed a ring on her finger.

_Oh, shitballs,_ was the only thing that crossed her mind. _It's done now._

"I'll try to keep your apprentice happy, Hokage sama," he offered to Tsunade. Sakura could hear muffled clapping and glanced to her left, noting Naruto and Hinata sitting on chairs that had been cleared of mission scrolls. "I'll try to keep you happy, Sakura," he offered quietly in her direction.

The pair went back to their rooms and Sakura shook her head, unable to think properly. "It's most likely being so damn tired," she muttered to herself.

"You _are_ also a little bit pregnant in case you forgot." Gaara said "That's bound to make you pretty tired, don't you think?"

She nodded and walked to the bathroom, shedding clothing. After all, it wasn't like he'd never seen her undressed before.

She'd expected him to follow her in, so when hands grasped her hips as she was adjusting the temperature of the water, she didn't jump. He'd also not bothered to hide his coming, even if she hadn't expected it, she would have heard him coming.

"So you're mine now, eh?" he said, and she could hear nothing but triumph in his voice.

Sakura almost growled at him then. That's all it was, just a victory for him to win? But then, she didn't know why she was surprised, and quite so upset over it. His hands curved around to her still flat stomach, which he ran his hands across gently, carefully. She could feel herself starting to melt, even if it was only her body going to jello for him.

"And here's the best part," his body came to rest against her as she straightened up, her back against his chest, as his hands rested over where he figured their baby nestled, safe and protected.

**LEMON WARNING**- if you don't want to read, skip over to the break please…

His hands moved up to cup her breasts, and she noted the relief she felt since they'd become somewhat… heavier in the last little while. His mouth moved to her neck, doing all the things he knew made her crazy, nibbling and kissing, gently sucking on the tender skin.

Sakura allowed herself to grind against his obvious arousal, and smirked triumphantly to herself. Yeah, he might have done something she wasn't too happy with, and she might have felt coerced, but at least she could have him whenever she wanted. Wherever she wanted. It might not be perfect, but it would do for now. She'd just think of something, sometime later. Something that would allow them both to be happy and have what they wanted.

Making a cheerful sound, she turned and went to her knees before him, watching his eyes get wide, worry made those eyes, that lovely aqua jade color shine… His mouth went slack as hers encased him, and a deep moan came from his throat.

She ignored him when he asked her to stop, held his legs and buttocks as he tried to move away from her warm mouth, and decided that she liked his taste. Sakura helped guide him to the floor so he lay on his back, mouth never leaving him, sucking, loving every second of it.

He begged her to stop, but she wouldn't. she refused to stop until he exploded in her mouth, and only then, after she'd tasted his very essence, did she get off of him.

His growl was feral, vengeful and slightly playful as he helped her up and pushed her into the shower. His hands were possessive and slightly hard on her body, mouth desperate as he took less than gentle nips on her neck and shoulders. His body hotter than the shower water as he held her.

When she'd finished rinsing off, he dragged her out of the shower and planted her on the washroom counter, sliding in as if he belonged there.

Which, to his mind, he did. Her mind was more concerned with how she felt as she whispered his name, hands clenching on the edge of the counter as he brought her to the brink over and over.

"I love you," he whispered softly into her shoulder as he came.

She heard him, but couldn't bring herself to speak, only hold him a little closer.

XXX **BREAK** XXX

She woke up the next morning feeling well, until she felt sick a moment later.

Gaara was at her side, embarrassingly, as she brought up anything that might have ever been in her stomach, until she brought the very _concept_ of eating out of her guts. He wouldn't leave when she waved him away, or when she pushed him away. He just sat there, wetting a cloth for her forehead and holding her hair back for her.

"I _hate_ you!" she growled in between bouts of sickness.

"I love you too," he told her calmly. "After you're done, we'll get you some ginger tea to help calm your stomach," her only response to that was a pained groan and a series of dry heaves to tell him _exactly_ what she thought of food right then.

There was a brief knock that Sakura could hear in between heaves, and she wondered what it was. "Can you get that?" she asked, turning back to pray to the white porcelain god.

Gaara was back in what seemed a moment, bearing a sheaf of papers that rustled, or she wouldn't have known what it was.

She'd been empty of dry heaves for a few minutes, and the scent of ginger and peaches wafted to her nostrils. "Are you okay for tea now? Or should we save it for later?" he asked gently.

"I'm alright, let's just move somewhere that doesn't smell like…this" she chose instead of the word vomit. Ick. Even the word made her skin crawl.

"After your stomach calms down, you can have a shower," he told her, helping her up and over to the sink so she could rinse her mouth.

"Who was at the door?" she asked, curious in between mouthfuls of water. They'd never actually had a visitor that knocked before.

"Shinji Amare," he replied. "She found something she said might interest you, but she told me she didn't want us going down and messing up her files again, so she brought it here. It's due back by sundown. She said if it wasn't there by then, she'd hunt us down for it."

"What is it? Did she say?" Sakura asked, finishing with her rinse.

"She said it was something that had bits in it apparently written by your grandmother." He replied, handing her the tea and leading into the bedroom where they both sat on the bed.

Sakura placed the steaming cup on the bedside table, since it was burning her fingers, and reached for the thick looking sheaf of papers. Gaara handed them to her without thinking about it, and the texture of old paper hit her fingers, soft, worn smooth and slightly dusty. Gently, she leafed through the handwritten pages of scroll, having never seen her grandmother's writing before. The sheets appeared to have been written by several different people.

"Gaara, can I hand you some of this to read? It'll take me forever by myself." Silently, he held out a hand to receive part of the stack of scrolls, covered in many versions of tiny, neat kanji.

About an hour later, Gaara spoke, breaking the long, comfortable silence. "I think I've found something here, Sakura. It mentions _sozo saisei_ a few times, along with some sort of rite pregnant women go through…"

Sakura reached out for it, but he didn't hand it to her, only read from it.

**Sabaku no Hime** and there it ends for today. I'm not pleased with this chapter, even though I've been trying to figure out a way to do it so that it isn't so boring. Only a few left; I don't think I'll need such a long hiatus for next chapter though, expect it to be out within three weeks – mid to late april.


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